Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate told reporters onboard their flight on Thursday that they were fine after the plane was forced to abort landings in the Pakistani cities of Rawalpindi and nearby Islamabad due to a severe thunderstorm.

The RAF Voyager carrying the royals, who are on a four-day official visit to Pakistan, returned to Lahore.

William, who has previously worked as a search and rescue helicopter pilot, told reporters after they landed in Lahore that he and Kate were fine and joked that the problems had been caused because he was flying the plane. A Reuters photographer on board said there had been no issues before the plane took off, but turbulence began to affect the flight, which was due to take just 26 minutes, as the plane attempted to land. The journey eventually took more than two hours and the photographer described it as one of the most turbulent flights he had experienced in 25 years of regular flying.

A senior civil aviation official in Lahore said that the couple could try again to fly to Islamabad later on Thursday if weather permitted, or else they would stay in Lahore.

Earlier in the day Prince William, who is second in line to the British throne, and Kate had joined locals in a cricket match in Lahore before a trip to a cancer hospital that his mother, Princess Diana, visited a year before her death.