Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has another plane breakdown: After a stopover to refuel in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the Green politician was initially unable to continue early Monday morning. Actually, Baerbock was on his way to a week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. The reason for the unscheduled stop is a technical defect in the starting flaps. Over the course of Monday, it should be checked how and when the trip to Australia can continue.
After a routine refueling stop in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the Airbus took off A340-300 the readiness to fly of the Bundeswehr early Monday morning as planned. However, just three minutes after take-off at 3:33 am local time (1:33 am CEST), the flight captain registered a defect when retracting the take-off flaps. After the crew had drained around 80 tons of kerosene from the fully fueled aircraft during a two-hour flight maneuver over the desert emirate and the sea, Baerbock and her delegation landed safely back in Abu Dhabi at 5:33 a.m. local time.
The failure of the takeoff flaps to retract fully and synchronously as required prevented the aircraft from reaching normal cruising altitude and speed. In addition, kerosene consumption increased. The aircraft was fully fueled for the almost 14-hour flight and took off from Abu Dhabi with a maximum take-off weight of 271 tons. For landing, it had to weigh less than 190 tons.
The flight captain spoke of a normal landing, which is practiced for such a situation in the simulator. He has been a pilot for 35 years and has been with the Air Force for 30 years. Such a mistake has not occurred in all this time, he said.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office had previously said on board: “Because of a mechanical problem, we have to return to Abu Dhabi for safety reasons.” On the ground, the flight crew should first check whether the damage can be repaired with on-board resources or whether spare parts are required. It would also be conceivable that a replacement aircraft would have to be flown from Cologne/Bonn, the location of the readiness to fly, to the Gulf Emirate. Another possibility would be for the minister to take a scheduled flight with a small part of the delegation and for the rest of the fellow travelers to follow in a government plane. On the sidelines of the trip, it was said that scheduled flights to Australia would start in the evening at the earliest.
Among other things, because of the legally prescribed rest periods for the flight crew, it was not expected that the Greens politician would be able to continue flying with the Bundeswehr’s readiness to fly during the course of Monday. Baerbock himself initially did not want to comment publicly on the incident. However, it was assumed that she wanted to continue the journey.
Last breakdown in Doha in mid-May
It is not the first time that the Secretary of State has been delayed on her travels. It was not until mid-May that Baerbock was stranded in Doha in the desert emirate of Qatar due to tire damage on her government Airbus and had to involuntarily extend her trip to the Gulf region.
But other members of the government have also had to put up with unscheduled stays due to breakdowns on a machine used by the Bundeswehr’s flight readiness service. For example, the Air Force Airbus had to Konrad Adenauer in November 2018 with the then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the then Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) on board on the way to the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires. Among other things, the radio system was paralyzed. Both flew line to Argentina.
In October 2018, rodents also nibbled on important cables during a stop in Indonesia adenauer at. At that time, Scholz returned by scheduled flight from the International Monetary Fund meeting. In December 2016, then Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) got stranded on her way to Mali. Because of a computer problem with her A340 in the Nigerian capital Abuja, she had to stay there overnight.
Baerbock’s most recent flight to Australia was originally on the sister aircraft to the earlier ones Konrad Adenauer planned, an almost identical A340-300. However, this one was also broken.
Baerbock actually wanted to land in the Australian capital Canberra on Monday evening around 10:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. CEST on Monday). On Tuesday morning, the official program was to begin with the return of colonial-era cultural assets to the Kaurna Indigenous people of Australia. The objects in the Grassi Museum in Leipzig – a wooden sword, a spear, a fishing net and a club – have sacred, cultural and identity-forming value for the Kaurna people. It was initially unclear what changes there would be to the travel program planned until Saturday.