A private jet worth £12million which Lionel Messi and his family usually fly around the world with had to make an emergency landing on Friday morning, April 3, 2020, due to a fault with its landing gear.
The jet which is being operated by Gulfstream V has been personalised to look like it is owned by the Barcelona football superstar because he frequently hires it for his personal use.
His Jersey number (10) is boldly inscribed on the tail of the private jet while the names of his family members – wife Antonella, children Thiago, Ciro and Mateo, are inscribed on the stairs of the plane.
According to ‘The Sun’ report, the private jet touched down on Zaventem Airport in Brussels, Belgian capital at 9:18am on Friday. After staying grounded for about 1hour 30minutes, the jet turned around and departed from the airport.
The Gulfstream V jet was flying to Tenerife in the Canary Islands from the Belgian capital when its landing gear developed a fault within 43 minutes after takeoff. It had to turn back to make an emergency landing on Zaventem Airport.
Though the private jet still wore the Lionel Messi‘s jersey number and the names of the player’s family members, it was not clear who was on board the private jet when it made the emergency landing.
According to flight trackers, the jet arrived in Belgium from San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina, Messi‘s home country, to Guararapes airport in Recife, Brazil.
The nearly 6 hours flight was said to have taken place overnight before it touched down in Belgium which is over 9 hours journey from Brazil.
Information from Flight Aware also revealed that the plane had flown to Port Elizabeth, South Africa and back to Argentina on March 21 and 22, 2020.
The £12million private jet has 16 seats which can be folded into 8 beds. It also comes with two bathrooms and a kitchen.
Meanwhile, as at the time of publishing this report, Lionel Messi and his team were yet to make any public statement concerning the incident.
