Princess Elizabeth Delayed In Nice On Flight To Britain

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27386, 11 May 1950, Page 7

Princess Elizabeth Delayed In Nice On Flight To Britain

NZPA—Copyright LONDON, May 9. A plane carrying Princess Elizabeth from Malta to England turned back to Nice today because of bad weather. The plane had landed at Nice for lunch, and 50 minutes after taking off again the pilot radioed that he was turning back because of thunderstorms and lightning. The machine returned to Nice safely about two' hours after it had taken off The Princess is expected to resume the flight to London tomorrow. When Princess Elizabeth’s plane returned to Nice her reappearance threw the French seaside resort into a minor panic, says the Nice correspondent of the United Press. There was only one official on duty at the airport to greet her—the air police chief—and he could not find even a hire car tq take the Princess to an hotel. Finally the harassed police chief, to prevent the Princess waiting any longer in the small airport room, offered his own car—which was quickly accepted. Meanwhile, jat the hotel a frantic search yielded a Union Jack for the masthead, but neither British nor French officials could be found to welcome the Princess, who finally settled down quite happily to afternoon tea in a public restaurant while her suite was being prepared. Crowds soon gathered outside the hotel, and the police had to erect barricades to keep sightseers out of the lobbies.

Before the Princess left Malta the British Fleet fired a 21-gun salute and a large crowd cheered as the Princess boarded her plane. She said goodbye last night to her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, whose destroyer, HMS Chequers, left Malta early in the morning to join the big sea rescue force guarding the route of the flight.