Belgium's Queen Mathilde's royal tour starts with scary incident – details
Queen Mathilde of Belgium is currently in Costa Rica for three days on a royal tour, however, her trip started with a scary moment after her plane was forced to carry out a priority landing.
A priority landing is given to planes when the aircraft has an emergency situation or other critical reason, allowing them to land before planes that otherwise would have been before them in the queue. It was revealed that the plane carrying Mathilde had suffered a cracked windshield during its flight.
The plane landed 15 minutes ahead of schedule, and while the moment would have been worrying for the crew onboard, it appears that this didn't spread onboard.
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Taking to X, royal commentator, Wim Dehandschutter, posted: "The airplane with Belgian Queen Mathilde landed in Costa Rica with a cracked windshield, according to this account and local media.
A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner plane (PH-BHD) with a cracked LH side windshield arrived at San José Juan Santamaria Intl. Airport (SJO) with priority landing on Runway 07 after a 10:43 hours flight, on Sunday (09 February) afternoon.
The 2016 built B787… pic.twitter.com/dSbUDGgmW5— FL360aero (@fl360aero) February 10, 2025
"I was on that flight. As passengers, we didn’t notice anything, and we didn’t receive any notification during the flight or upon landing."
He added: "Our KLM flight did leave Schiphol 20 minutes late, there was turbulence - as on many flights - and the landing was quite hard, but nothing seemed to be alarming. So I was a bit surprised when I read reports in the local media and on X about the 'emergency landing'."
During her visit, Mathilde has met with Costa Rica's president, Rodrigo Chaves and first lady Signe Zeikate. The 52-year-old is in the country for a UNICEF mission and also visited a coffee plantation that supports the children of seasonal workers and a community programme for vulnerable children.
The royal tour, which concludes on Wednesday, is planned to highlight UNICEF's work with migrant children and to tackle the issue of childhood obesity in the country. Figures have shown that one in five children in the American country are obese.
On Tuesday, the royal visited a public childcare centre, where she was greeted by children waving the Costa Rican flag and the UNICEF flag.
Mathilde is known for her philanthropy and she has been active on social issues within the country, focusing on issues like poverty, education and feminist causes.
The Belgian royal has also worked with UNICEF Belgium and the World Health Organisation and is the founder of the Queen Mathilde Fund which promotes the care of vulnerable people in various categories.
