Secretary of State Annalina Berbock had another plane crash: After a refueling stop in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the Green politician had to cancel her trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji early Monday morning. A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry had said earlier on board the plane: „Due to a mechanical problem, we have to return to Abu Dhabi for safety reasons.”
The plane landed safely in Abu Dhabi at 5:33 am local time (3:33 am CET). There it must be clarified if, when and how the journey can be continued. On the ground, the flight crew must first check whether the damage can be repaired with onboard resources or whether spare parts are needed. Among other things, because of the statutory rest periods for the flight crew, it was not expected that the Greens politician would be able to continue flying as the Bundeswehr prepared to fly through Monday.
The plane took off at 3:33 am local time after a stop in Abu Dhabi to refuel. Three minutes later, the problem was noticed in the air and the plane had to turn back for safety reasons. The flight captain had previously reported over the onboard loudspeaker that there were problems retracting the landing flaps. In order to be able to land safely in Abu Dhabi, the fuel had to be drained off first. The Airbus was fueled with 110 tons of kerosene for the long route. Of these, 80 had to be drained. To do this, the machine circled for about two hours over the Gulf emirate and the sea.
The aircraft took off with a maximum take-off weight of 271 tons. It had to weigh less than 190 tons to land. After landing, the Airbus was escorted by the airport fire brigade. The flight captain spoke of a normal landing, which is practiced for such a situation in the simulator. He did not ask for a firefighter escort. The captain said he had been a pilot for 35 years and had been with the air mission for 30 years. Such a mistake did not happen all the time. Accordingly, one of the rear landing pads was faulty. For this reason, it cannot be pulled symmetrically as is actually necessary. This led to an increase in kerosene consumption. In addition, neither the sailing height nor the normal sailing speed can be reached. Berbock himself initially did not want to comment publicly on the incident. However, it was assumed that she wanted to continue the journey.
The last collapse occurred in Doha in mid-May
Barbock left on Sunday for a week-long trip to the Pacific. This is not the first time that the Secretary of State has been delayed in her travels. It wasn’t until mid-May that Barbock was stuck in Doha, the desert emirate of Qatar, due to damaged tires on a government Airbus and had to forcibly extend her trip to the Gulf region.
But other members of the government have already had to endure unscheduled stays due to malfunctions in a machine used by the German army’s flight readiness service. For example, the Air Force Airbus had to do this Konrad Adenauer In November 2018 with then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and then Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) on the way to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. Among other things, the radio system was paralyzed. They both flew to Argentina.
Three of the journalists who traveled with Berbock on Monday were already on the plane with Merkel and Schultz. In October 2018, lemmings also gnawed important cables from the „Adenauer” during a stopover in Indonesia. At that time, Schultz returned with a scheduled flight from the meeting of the International Monetary Fund. In December 2016, then-Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) was stranded on her way to Mali. Due to a computer problem with the A340 in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, it had to stay there overnight.
Larbock’s most recent flight to Australia was originally on the previous aircraft’s sister aircraft Konrad Adenauer Planned, the A340-300 is nearly identical. However, this was also broken.
Burbock wanted to land in the Australian capital, Canberra, on Monday night around 10:30 pm local time (2:30 pm CEST Monday). On Tuesday morning, the official program was to begin returning colonial-era cultural assets to Australia’s indigenous Karna people. The objects in the Grassi Museum in Leipzig – a wooden sword, a spear, a fishing net and a club – have sacred, cultural and identity-forming value for the Kaurna people. It was not clear at first what changes would be made to the travel program planned until Saturday. After Australia, Berbock also wanted to visit New Zealand and Fiji.