Royal tour: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s flight forced to abort landing in Sydney

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have returned to Australia to attend the Invictus Games

A plane carrying the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was forced to abort its landing in Sydney due to another aircraft on the runway.

Meghan and Prince Harry had boarded the charter flight back to Australia following their visit to Tonga as part of their 16-day royal tour.

The pilot of the Qantas aircraft originally tried to land on the runway at Sydney Airport, as planned.

However, he was forced to pull the plane up moments before the scheduled landing due to another plane that was taking too long to move on the runway.

According to flight tracker service Flightradar24, the plane had descended to an altitude of 125 feet when the pilot aborted the landing.

“There was an aircraft on the runway a little slow to roll… so the decision was taken to abort the landing,” a message from the flight deck said.

The pilot described the occurrence as a “missed approach”, according to Daily Mail royal correspondent Rebecca English who’d been aboard the flight.

A missed approach is a procedure that takes place if a pilot decides that a landing “cannot be accomplished,” as explained in the Aeronautical Information Manual.

Factors such as the altitude of the plane and the climb gradient are taken into account when deciding whether or not a missed approach can be carried out.

After performing a go-around, the pilot then landed the flight on a second attempt.

The royal couple have returned to Australia to watch the Invictus Games on Saturday.

They’ll then be travelling to New Zealand before returning to the UK.

Earlier this week, the Duchess of Sussex’s visit to a market in Fiji was cut short due to a “security issue”.

According to a royal source, the market was “uncomfortably busy” and the crowds had been far larger than previously anticipated.