Popes and airplanes: Stories of the unexpected and unusual

Paul VI was the first pope to travel by air. The year was 1964. He embarked from Rome's Fiumicino airport for a historic trip to the Holy Land from May 24 to 26. Aboard the aircraft, a Douglas DC8 operated by Alitalia, the Italian Pope made a detour into the cockpit and took the opportunity to bless the air force patrol escorting the plane.

On this flight, the Holy See also inaugurated the tradition of sending a friendly greeting to the authorities of the countries overflown.

Even today, on entering a country's airspace, the Holy See sends a message in which the Pope gives his blessing to the inhabitants. In 2014, when Pope Francis' plane exceptionally flew over China to reach South Korea, a transmission problem prevented the telegram from arriving, causing a “slight diplomatic inconvenience.” At China's request, the Holy See had to resend the message. 

John Paul II's African tour in September 1988 was to exclude South Africa, then still under apartheid, a regime severely condemned by the Polish pontiff. The program included visits to five African countries: Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho (landlocked in South Africa), Swaziland (partly landlocked in South Africa), and Mozambique. However, bad weather altered this meticulously organized itinerary ... and forced the Boeing 707 to abandon Maseru (Lesotho) and divert to Johannesburg. 

This turn of events forced Pope John Paul II to greet the South African Foreign Minister in an airport lounge. The Pope then crossed 340 miles of South African soil. Le Monde's correspondent at the time recounted: “The Pope and his entourage in an ‘apartheid government’ limousine and his entire religious and journalistic retinue in three luxury coaches, supplied, protected, and fed by the same government. When it comes to looking good to enhance their country's image and reputation, South Africans know how to be efficient.”

On another occasion, the weather would once again play its part in the history of papal travel, but with fewer diplomatic consequences. Returning from a trip to India in 1986, for example, the Polish pontiff's plane was forced to land in Naples because snow prevented it from landing at Rome's Fiumicino airport. In the end, the head of the Catholic Church ended his journey by train! 

Pope John Paul II still holds the record for the most official trips abroad: 104 trips to 129 different countries. But he certainly also holds the record for the fastest trip, as he flew aboard Concorde, the famous Franco-British aircraft that had a cruising speed exceeding 1,300 miles per hour.

The man in white climbed aboard the “beautiful white bird” to fly from Saint-Denis de La Réunion to Lusaka in Zambia in May 1989. Traditionally, the country hosting the pope provides a local airline, in this case Air France, for the return flight. Eleven years later, on July 25, 2000, when the Concorde crashed after taking off from Paris, Pope John Paul II sent a telegram of condolence to the president of the French Bishops' Conference. 

In April 2016, Pope Francis surprised the world. After a one-day trip to the island of Lesvos (Greece) to alert Europe to the plight of migrants, the Argentine pontiff brought three families from Damascus and Deir ez-Zor, a city occupied by the terrorist organization ISIS, on board his plane. Housed at a migrant center on the Greek island, these 12 refugees — including six minors — benefited from the intuition of a relative of the Pope who, a week before the trip, suggested the idea to him. 

“It is a drop of water in the sea! But after this drop of water the sea will not be the same!” It was with this quote from Mother Teresa that Pope Francis justified his gesture to the journalists also on board the flight.

On the question of the faith of these migrants, all Muslims, the Pope replied: “I did not choose between Christians and Muslims. These three families had their papers in order, the necessary documents, and so it was possible. There were, for example, two Christian families on the first list who did not have their papers in order. It is not a privilege. All 12 of them are children of God. The ‘privilege’ is being children of God.”

It was at an altitude of 40,000 feet that Pope Francis celebrated the marriage between a stewardess and a steward of the Latin American airline Latam on the flight between Santiago and Itquique in Chile, in January 2018. Civilly married for 10 years and parents of two children, the couple were due to be married in the Church in 2010, but an earthquake destroyed their church shortly before the ceremony. So the couple swore fidelity before God while flying through the sky, and in the presence of the Pope. 

The marriage certificate, drawn up on a sheet of paper and published by the Vatican, bears the signatures of the bride and groom, the Pope, and the airline owner, chosen as witness. “The Pope took our hands, blessed the rings, and married us in God's name. What he said to us was very important: 'The sacrament of marriage is a sacrament that the world needs. I hope this will encourage couples to get married,’” the couple told reporters. “All the conditions were clearly present,” reassured Pope Francis at the final conference of his South American tour.