Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud traveled to Moscow this week, and he came prepared with an entourage of 1,500 people and a private jet. That jet includes an opulent golden escalator, and King Salman was about to make a dramatic entrance on it until the escalator experienced a technical malfunction and stopped working.
In videos of the king landing in Russia, he looks confused for a minute before he starts walking down the steps one by one.
Who among us hasn’t had to walk up or down a broken escalator (although it probably wasn’t a golden escalator, and it was probably in a shopping center)? The internet loved seeing a king forced to deal with this minor inconvenience.
Saudi King’s golden airplane escalator got stuck in Russia. The poor guy had to walk.
— @gissisim.com on BlueSky (@GissiSim) October 5, 2017
Howling 😭https://t.co/cpjM7VHYLY
Saudi King seemingly paralyzed when his plane’s escalators stop working. pic.twitter.com/S7A20KKBp1
— Natasha Fatah (@NatashaFatah) October 6, 2017
https://twitter.com/rezamarashi/status/915948674705915904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F4972313%2Fking-salman-escalator%2F
One person thought it was a great Curb Your Enthusiasm moment.
Saudi king’s golden escalator got stuck yesterday. Someone please put the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” music under this. https://t.co/ol2p7HBoij
— Liam Martin (@LiamFromBoston) October 5, 2017
Maybe the king should have a slide installed in case the escalator breaks down again. A gold-plated slide, of course.