It was only in May that the foreign minister was stranded in Qatar because of a wheel defect on a government airbus. Now Baerbock has to interrupt her trip to Australia – the second attempt also fails.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock failed on her second attempt to fly to Australia with the Air Force’s readiness to fly. According to a dpa reporter, the flight captain announced this on board the machine. 15 minutes after take-off, the Airbus A340-300 veered off course again and flew back towards Abu Dhabi. The machine climbed at the beginning, but didn’t pick up any speed.
Despite a breakdown in her government plane, Baerbock wanted to continue her visit to the Pacific region. In the evening in Abu Dhabi, delegation circles said: “We are pleased that we can continue the interrupted trip to Australia tonight.” The landing was planned in the metropolis of Sydney. The travel program has been adjusted accordingly.
According to information from her delegation, the minister wanted to leave around midnight with a delay of around 22 hours. The flight readiness had successfully completed a test flight in Abu Dhabi before the decision was made. The previously defective landing flaps initially worked again without any problems. The program items planned for Tuesday in the capital Canberra had to be canceled or postponed due to the delay in arrival.
What happened?
Baerbock had previously been slowed down again by a government plane that broke down. Due to a technical defect in the landing flaps, the Green politician was initially unable to continue her flight to a week-long visit to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.
After a routine stopover to refuel in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the Bundeswehr’s Airbus A340-300 took off as planned early in the morning. However, just three minutes after take-off at 3:33 a.m. local time (1:33 a.m. CEST), the flight captain registered a defect when retracting the landing 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 flight captain reported the problem over the on-board loudspeaker. A spokesman for the Foreign Office later said on board: “Because of a mechanical problem, we have to return to Abu Dhabi for safety reasons.”
Flaps defective
The fact that the landing flaps could not be fully and synchronously retracted as necessary 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. It had to weigh less than 190 tons to land.
The Air Force wrote about the incident on the online platform X, formerly known as Twitter: “Safety first! Our A340 had to return there this night after taking off from Abu Dhabi for safety reasons.”
Berlin: government aircraft are “excellently maintained”
Despite the renewed breakdown, the federal government sees the fleet in excellent condition. One was “very satisfied,” said deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner in Berlin when asked about the readiness to fly.
“The Bundeswehr’s readiness to fly is doing an excellent job,” said Büchner. The aircraft would also be “excellently maintained”. In the case of an aircraft, it is not the age that is decisive, but the state of maintenance. “And these planes are maintained to be comparable to any new plane in terms of safety.”
It is not the first time that the Secretary of State has been delayed on her travels. In mid-May, she was stranded in Doha in the desert emirate of Qatar due to tire damage on the government airbus and had to involuntarily extend her trip to the Gulf region by a day.
Merkel and Scholz were also affected
There have also been several breakdowns with the Airbus A340-300 with which Baerbock was now traveling to Australia. In November 2018, the then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had to board the plane, which was still flying under the name “Konrad Adenauer” at the time, together with the then Minister of Finance and today’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on the way to the Reverse G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Among other things, the radio system of the machine, which still flies with the tactical code 16+01 to this day, failed. Because the kerosene discharge did not work either, the plane had to land in Cologne/Bonn several tons over the permitted landing weight. Three of the journalists traveling with Baerbock on Monday were there at the time.
In October 2018, rodents also nibbled on important cables of the “Konrad Adenauer” during a stop in Indonesia. At that time, Scholz returned as finance minister by scheduled flight from the meeting of the International Monetary Fund. 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 spend the night there.
Baerbock’s most recent flight to Australia was originally planned with the sister aircraft of the former “Konrad Adenauer”, an almost identical A340-300. However, this one was also broken.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
