What happened
Iberia, the national airline of Spain, faced an operational embarrassment when its designated Papal plane suffered a mechanical failure at Tenerife’s Los Rodeos airport. Consequently, Pope Leo XIV was unable to depart on the scheduled Iberia flight and instead returned to Rome aboard a private aircraft graciously provided by King Felipe of Spain. The Holy See staff and traveling press returned in the coming hours on a separate aircraft also provided by Iberia. This event underscores specific fleet reliability issues for the IAG-owned carrier