(Pak Destiny) Lahore gets one more day to host the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge William and Kate after their plane was forced to leave back because of bad weather in Islamabad on Thursday.
Lahorites are happy to host the royal guests for another day. The couple spent busy day on Lahore on Thursday and now they will spend Friday here too, thanks to stormy weather.
The Royal Air Force plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Lahore airport after harsh weather did not let it land at the Islmabad airport.
Prince William and Kate’s royal airforce plane had to abort its landing in Islamabad in a storm, and was in the air for over two hours for what was supposed to be a 25 minute journey. After the aircraft was unable to land at the Pakistani Royal Air Force base and a commercial airport, it turned back. William – a former air ambulance pilot – asked traveling media if they were okay following heavy turbulence, and joked: “I was flying!” ITV’s royal reporter Chris Ship – who was on the plane with the couple – reported. “After shaking around in the air, the RAF Voyager used for the #royalvisitPakistan turned around and has just landed back in Lahore (where we started),” he wrote on Twitter.
Royal reporter Simon Perry also wrote about it on his own account. “Phew. Landed! But in Lahore. A terrifying electrical storm hit as we tried to land at Islambad. Lightning seemed to be crashing around the right wing. Despite the best efforts of the pilot William and Kate’s RAF Voyager plane we couldn’t land there.”
Earlier in the day, William and Kate had visited a government-run school in Islamabad, where they met a group of teenagers and discussed their aspirations from when they were younger. They also took part in a cricket tournament in Lahore, before paying a poignant visit to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, the same hospital which was visited by Prince William’s late mother, Princess Diana, in 1996.
William and Kate have travelled to Pakistan at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Kensington Palace said in a statement earlier in the month: “Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will undertake an official visit to Pakistan between Monday 14th and Friday 18th October, at the request of The Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The royal couple – William and Kate — are the first royals to officially visit Pakistan since Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited the region in 2006. Pak Destiny
