After Luxembourg visit
Technical problems delay Steinmeier’s return flight
A defect in an engine of the Airbus A321 was reported from the cockpit. photo
© Jörg Carstensen/dpa
Another technical problem with the readiness to fly: Federal President Steinmeier and his delegation had to stay longer in Luxembourg. The reason: problem with the engine.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier paid his official visit to Luxembourg involuntarily had to extend by about an hour and a half.
The cause was a technical problem on the Luftwaffe plane that was supposed to bring him, his wife Elke Büdenbender and the delegation back to Berlin. When everyone was already sitting in the machine, a defect in an engine of the Airbus A321 was reported from the cockpit. Since the air conditioning was not working and it was getting warmer and warmer in the plane, which was standing in the blazing summer sun, all the passengers got out and temporarily went to a cooler airport building.
Technical problems with the planes of the flight readiness service are not part of everyday life, but they do occur from time to time. Steinmeier’s departure for a visit to Mexico was delayed by several hours in September last year. It was worse recently for Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens). In May she was stranded in the desert emirate of Qatar due to a wheel defect and had to spend an additional night there before returning to Berlin.