U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was grounded in Switzerland on Wednesday after his plane had a “critical failure” due to an oxygen leak.
A second plane was quickly despatched to whisk him back home, thus leaving the globalist elites gathered at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos in his wake, the BBC reports.
Some aides and traveling press party returned to Washington, DC, separately by commercial flight.
The delay occurred at the end of Blinken’s latest global trip and did not disrupt his overseas itinerary, Matthew Miller, a state department spokesperson told reporters.
“There was a mechanical issue with his plane,” he said. “The Air Force has a replacement plane inbound. We expect to be back still tonight but several hours later than originally planned.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at an event of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on 17 January 2024, in Davos, Switzerland.(Hannes P Albert/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The plane Blinken was flying on was a modified Boeing C-40, a U.S. Air Force aircraft assigned to Joint Base Andrews, Rose Riley, a spokesperson for the Air Force cited by Axios said.
The secretary of state and aides initially boarded the plane in Zurich on Wednesday and were forced to get off after the leak was identified.
Blinken had taken a helicopter from Davos to Zurich ahead of his departure.
He had been scheduled to return to the U.S. aboard a Boeing 737, according to U.S. media reports.
Mechanical issues on U.S. Air Force passenger planes have been a concern on previous state department trips.
On Blinken’s trip to China last summer, his aides provided reporters with visas for an Azerbaijan refuelling stop just in case any maintenance issues should ground the aircraft, the BBC report sets out.
