Techinical problem forces Queen of Spain's flight to return to airport

An Airbus A310 carrying Queen Sofia of Spain suffered a technical problem during a flight between Guatemala and Spain. The aircraft, belonging to the Spanish Air force, made a refueling stop in the Dominican Republic, but after taking off with apparently no issues, the pilot detected a problem with the braking system in one of its motors and made the decision to return to the airport in order to allow the problem to be attended to by the two onboard mechanics. The plane remained on the ground for around two hours in the Dominican Republic before it was able to continue on its way back to Spain, where it was scheduled to land at the military airport of Torrejon, which has an especially long runway. The incident is significant given that it is the fourth time a Spanish military aircraft has suffered a technical problem while carrying a dignitary in the past four months. Prince Felipe, the heir to the Spanish throne, was the unfortunate passenger on two of these occasions, being forced to cancel a planned trip to Brazil on November 25 last year, while another problem during a flight to Honduras saw the Prince's plane forced to land in the Dominican Republic after an indicator light revealed an oil problem in one of the engines. On both of these occasions the aircraft in question was an Airbus A-310, although not the same aircraft in which the Queen was travelling. Meanwhile earlier this month Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also suffered problems flying back to Spain from a meeting of European conservative parties in Dublin on March 7. Rajoy's Air Force Falcon jet was forced to return to Dublin airport after a warning light went off, although he later returned to Spain on the same aircraft.