German foreign minister failed to arrive in Australia for a planned tour after her Air Force jet developed a fault and had to circle back to Abu Dhabi, where she is presently stranded.
German foreign minister Analena Baerbock’s Luftwaffe (German Air Force) Airbus A340-300 executive aircraft stopped off in Abu Dhabi overnight, but following takeoff found the flaps were no longer functioning properly, meaning it had to circle back and land again. The issue is just the latest in a long series of very high-profile failures for Germany’s executive jets, meant to ferry government VIPs around the world in the manner of America’s Air Force One.
Because it had just taken off with a full load of aviation gas for the lengthy flight to the Pacific where Baerbock is supposed to be launching a diplomatic tour today, the aircraft had to spend two hours circling while jumping 80 tons of jet fuel before it was able to safely land. The environmental implications of this have been a major feature of German media reportage on the incident.
14 August 2023, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi: The pilots of the government aircraft “Konrad Adenauer” are discharging fuel in a controlled manner. Due to a problem retracting the landing flaps of the Airbus A350 with the registration number 16+01, the aircraft returns to its stopover in Abu Dhabi. (Photo by Sina Schuldt/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Herzlichen Dank an die Crew der Flugbereitschaft @Team_Luftwaffe für die sichere Landung!
— Sebastian Fischer (@SFischer_EU) August 14, 2023
Wegen eines mechanischen Problems mit den Landeklappen mussten wir unsere Reise nach Australien unterbrechen und aus Sicherheitsgründen zunächst nach Abu Dhabi zurückkehren. pic.twitter.com/t9S2aS0kc6
German Foreign Office spokesman Sebastian Fischer who appeared to be on the stricken flight thanked the Luftwaffe for a “safe landing” and reflected: “Due to a mechanical problem with the landing flaps, we had to interrupt our trip to Australia and return to Abu Dhabi for safety reasons.”
The Luftwaffe, for their part, said the unscheduled landing was a matter of “safety first” due to a “technical fault” and that “We are working at full speed to enable our guests to continue their journey”.
A report in German broadsheet newspaper Welt notes technical crews were working to assess whether they could repair the issue with the equipment onboard or whether they needed to send for spares or a whole new aircraft from Germany. Onwards progress, even if the aircraft is quickly repaired, will be hampered by German minimum rest period rules, which means the pilots are entitled to a period of recuperation before taking off again, delaying the first possible takeoff to this afternoon, it is said.
Baerbock’s trip to the Pacific, according to the report, includes several stops to fulfill Germany’s left-progressive government programme, including returning colonial-era artifacts to indigenous people in Australia, enjoying the women’s world cup, talking about ‘green hydrogen’, and learning about rising sea levels in Fiji.
Today’s travel mishap is one of several such embarrassments for German leaders who rely on the Luftwaffe to get them about on one hand, but have massively underfunded their own military for many years on the other. Baerbock was stranded in Qatar earlier this year after her government jet broke down and former Chancellor Angela Merkel experienced a breakdown in 2018. Other government mambers including Usrula von der Leyen — then the Defence Minister and now a top Eurocrat — and Olaf Scholz have also suffered breakdowns.
14 August 2023, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi: The government plane, an Airbus A340-300, stands on a parking position out of Abu Dhabi airport. (Photo by Sina Schuldt/picture alliance via Getty Images)
As reported by Breitbart London, it isn’t just VIPs who suffer these issues. When Germany wanted to make a significant donation of military equipment to the Kurds fighting ISIS in 2014 including over 100 vehicles, thousands of battle rifles, machine guns, anti-tank rockets, tens of thousands of grenades, and millions of rounds of ammunition, they were considerably delayed because the aircraft meant to do the job broke down on the runway.
Worse still, when the Luftwaffe found they were unable to fix the aircraft, the backup plane they borrowed from another country to get them out of trouble broke down too.
This state of affairs hasn’t been without critics. Indeed, the parlous state of the German military was slammed by no less than the head of the Luftwaffe, Lieutenant General Karl Müllner, who experienced what was reported to have been a “not quite voluntary” removal from post over his criticism of Merkel’s leadership in 2018.
As reported, When Müllner ‘retired’ he was treated to a ceremonious flyby of four Eurofighter combat jets of the Luftwaffe over Berlin — then the only four combat-ready airframes out of Germany’s theoretical fleet of 128.
