Royal Watch News

Duchess Catherine's fear of flying

Feb 13, 2012, 13:01 GMT

Duchess Catherine and Prince William

Britain's Duchess Catherine has been left 'terrified' of flying after she and Prince William narrowly escaped a potential air crash.

The 30-year-old royal - who was returning to the UK from Denmark on one of her first official overseas engagements at the time of the incident last November - was travelling on a British Airways jet, which was forced to take emergency action to avoid ploughing into another aircraft on the runway.

When the plane was less than 200ft off the ground, the pilot had to put it into a steep climb and circle London's Heathrow Airport for several minutes while the landing strip was then cleared.

While the 162 passengers on board all escaped unhurt, the situation was said to be 'extremely worrying'.

An insider said: 'This really was a serious incident and would have been terrifying for those on board. The aircraft ahead of them hadn't cleared the runway in time for the plane carrying the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to land.

'For anyone who didn't know what was going on it would have been extremely worrying. The pilot took the decision to ascend suddenly during the approach and thankfully he was able to land safely.

'But for a few seconds it would have been very frightening.'

Despite the incident reportedly having exacerbated Catherine's existing fear of flying, she is said to be 'determined' to overcome her worries as she will be boarding aircrafts on numerous occasions this year as she carries out official duties on behalf of Queen Elizabeth in celebration of her Diamond Jubilee.

The source added to The People newspaper: 'William is a trained pilot and is obviously very confident in the air. But Kate wasn't the best flyer in the first place and often turns to her husband for support. This certainly hasn't helped and she has spoken to aides about her concerns.

'But she knows she has a busy schedule ahead this year involving lots of flights and she is determined to overcome any fears.'