Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has another plane breakdown: After a stopover to refuel in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the Green politician had to cancel her flight to a week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji early Monday morning. 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.”
The aircraft landed safely back in Abu Dhabi at 5:33 a.m. local time (3:33 a.m. CEST). There it should be clarified whether, when and how the journey can be continued. 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 was considered possible that Baerbock would fly on with a small part of her delegation by line – with scheduled flights to Australia only starting on Monday evening.
The plane took off at 3:33 a.m. local time after a stopover in Abu Dhabi to refuel. Three minutes later, the problem was noticed in the air and the plane had to return for safety reasons. The flight captain had previously informed over the on-board loudspeaker that there were problems retracting the landing flaps. In order to be able to land safely in Abu Dhabi, fuel first had to be drained. The Airbus was fueled with 110 tons of kerosene for the long route. Of these, 80 had to be drained. The aircraft took off with a maximum takeoff weight of 271 tons. For landing, it had to weigh less than 190 tons.
After landing, the airport fire brigade accompanied the Airbus. The flight captain spoke of a normal landing, which is practiced for such a situation in the simulator. He did not request the escort of the fire brigade. The captain said he has been a pilot for 35 years and has been with the Air Mission for 30 years. Such an error had not occurred in the whole time. Accordingly, one of the two rear landing flaps was defective. For this reason, these could not be retracted symmetrically as actually necessary. This increased kerosene consumption. In addition, neither the cruising altitude nor the normal cruising speed could be reached. 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
Originally, the Foreign Minister wanted to fly on from the Australian capital Canberra to Sydney on Tuesday evening. The onward flight to New Zealand was scheduled for Thursday morning local time. On Thursday evening we should continue to Fiji. Baerbock left for a week-long trip to the Pacific region on Sunday. 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.
Three of the journalists traveling with Baerbock on Monday were already on the flight with Merkel and Scholz. In October 2018, rodents also nibbled important cables of the “Adenauer” during a stop in Indonesia. 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.