German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock stranded in Gulf after aircraft malfunction
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock was left stranded in the Gulf after the latest in a series of plane malfunctions that forced her aircraft to jettison most of its fuel. The Airbus A340-300 that was carrying Baerbock on a week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, suffered a technical fault with its wing flaps three minutes after take-off on Monday morning following a routine stopover to refuel in Abu Dhabi. The pilot was forced to spend about two hours flying over the desert and the sea to dump around 80 tons of kerosene to enable the aircraft to land safely, prompting questions about the environmental damage caused by the Green minister’s trip. The 23-year-old plane touched down back in the United Arab Emirates at 5.33am local time. It was unclear whether the planned visit, which was due to begin in Canberra on Tuesday would be cancelled or would go ahead. The German air force, which maintains and operates the diplomatic fleet, said that the fuel dump was a standard safety procedure that was necessary to ensure that the plane was not too heavy to land. It said that it was working at “full speed” to enable the delegation to continue its journey. The glitch is one of a long string of incidents to befall German politicians making international trips with the government’s fleet of aircraft. They trigger regular bouts of angst in the German media about the damage to the country’s international image as a centre of engineering prowess as well as questions about the state of the military. Only three months ago, in May, Baerbock was forced to spend an extra night in Qatar after her plane suffered a damaged tyre and mechanics were forced to fly a new tyre from Germany. In 2018, then-chancellor Angela Merkel had to make an emergency landing when her plane — the same one that was afflicted by Monday’s breakdown — suffered a defective electronic distribution box that caused multiple systems, including the radio, to fail. She missed the opening of a G20 summit in Argentina as a result.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-08-15/general/german-foreign-minister-annalena-baerbock-stranded-in-gulf-after-aircraft-malfunction
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German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock stranded in Gulf after aircraft malfunction
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock was left stranded in the Gulf after the latest in a series of plane malfunctions that forced her aircraft to jettison most of its fuel. The Airbus A340-300 that was carrying Baerbock on a week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, suffered a technical fault with its wing flaps three minutes after take-off on Monday morning following a routine stopover to refuel in Abu Dhabi. The pilot was forced to spend about two hours flying over the desert and the sea to dump around 80 tons of kerosene to enable the aircraft to land safely, prompting questions about the environmental damage caused by the Green minister’s trip. The 23-year-old plane touched down back in the United Arab Emirates at 5.33am local time. It was unclear whether the planned visit, which was due to begin in Canberra on Tuesday would be cancelled or would go ahead. The German air force, which maintains and operates the diplomatic fleet, said that the fuel dump was a standard safety procedure that was necessary to ensure that the plane was not too heavy to land. It said that it was working at “full speed” to enable the delegation to continue its journey. The glitch is one of a long string of incidents to befall German politicians making international trips with the government’s fleet of aircraft. They trigger regular bouts of angst in the German media about the damage to the country’s international image as a centre of engineering prowess as well as questions about the state of the military. Only three months ago, in May, Baerbock was forced to spend an extra night in Qatar after her plane suffered a damaged tyre and mechanics were forced to fly a new tyre from Germany. In 2018, then-chancellor Angela Merkel had to make an emergency landing when her plane — the same one that was afflicted by Monday’s breakdown — suffered a defective electronic distribution box that caused multiple systems, including the radio, to fail. She missed the opening of a G20 summit in Argentina as a result.<br/>
