Delay due to breakdown
The Bushman government plane returns to the parking lot

May 10, 2024 at 3:44 pm

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German government aircraft are notoriously prone to breakdowns. Now a technical problem spoils the Federal Minister of Justice’s return flight from Venice shortly before the weekend. Its mechanism must return to the parking position. An hour delay is expected.

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Bushmann and his accompanying delegation were initially unable to leave Venice after the conclusion of the G7 Justice Ministers’ meeting. The reason for this was a technical problem with a government plane. The Minister and his accompanying delegation learned that a delay of several hours was expected after the Global 5000 aircraft was forced to return to the parking lot shortly before its scheduled takeoff at noon. The return flight to Germany was scheduled for early evening with a replacement plane that was supposed to come from Cologne. The exact cause of the collapse is not yet known.

At a meeting in Venice, justice ministers from G7 countries discussed how judicial authorities can use artificial intelligence in a legally safe way. According to the participants, the topic of the two-day meeting in Italy was also the question of where the boundaries for the use of machine learning and robotics should be formulated.

Collapses, collapses, collapses…

Malfunctions on government aircraft are not uncommon. Last year, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had to cancel a government trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji over one.

At the end of 2018, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was involved in a serious accident when she was on her way to the G20 summit in Argentina on the Konrad Adenauer government plane. A faulty component – a central switching unit in the plane’s onboard electronics – paralyzed two radio systems that are supposed to replace each other in emergency situations. The plane that took off from Berlin had to turn back.

After a general repair of the government plane for four months, another malfunction occurred on the first official flight in April 2019. After a nine-hour flight from Berlin to New York with Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on board, a tire exploded during landing so that the Airbus A340 was unable to reach Parking on its own. It is now known that the Konrad Adenauer government plane, which has become known as the Breakdown Plane, will be scrapped.

Paris – A man arrested for attacking a woman with a knife grabbed an officer at a Paris police station and shot two police officers.

Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez (60 years old) arrived at the crime scene shortly after the crime occurred around midnight, accompanied by Public Prosecutor Laure Picoau, and explained to reporters that the suspect was arrested around 10 p.m. for “an extremely violent attack on a woman.” With a cutting knife brought to the station.

There, the arrested man grabbed the weapon and seriously injured the officers. Therefore, the two police officers were taken to the hospital; One of them was in danger of death.

The arrested man was reportedly seriously injured when he was shot. The man was also taken to hospital with a wound to his chest, but his life was not in danger.

Nunez expressed „grave concern” about the officers’ health and praised the „courage and responsiveness” of police station staff.

In response to a request from Agence France-Presse, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said that three investigations had been opened – one on charges of “attempted murder of women” and the other on “attempted murder of people who engage in public violence.”

The third investigation concerns the use of weapons by officers.

It was first reported at 4:04 a.m., and updated at 7:44 a.m.

Defense Minister Pistorius announced the delivery of three missile launch systems to Ukraine during his visit to the United States. He assured his American colleague Austin of Germany’s greater military commitment.

Germany will pay for the delivery of three HIMARS rocket artillery systems from the United States to Ukraine. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced this decision in Washington after talks with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin.

“They come from US Armed Forces stocks and are paid for by us,” he said. The systems cost more than millions. HIMARS („High Mobility Artillery Rocket System”) is a multiple rocket launcher artillery system mounted on a truck chassis.

Pistorius emphasizes Germany’s increasing commitment

Ahead of the NATO summit in July, Pistorius wants to use his trip to the United States and Canada to, among other things, correct the critical view of Germany that emerged in previous years and illustrate Germany’s stronger military commitment.

Pistorius stressed Germany’s readiness to bear more military responsibility for security in Europe and the world. He announced that Germany was ready to make „further contributions for a fair transatlantic burden-sharing.” He pointed to the achievement of NATO’s 2% target, the continued deployment of a combat-ready brigade in Lithuania and the Air Defense in Europe initiative initiated by Germany.

Meanwhile, during his meeting with Austin at the Pentagon, Pistorius called on the US government not to relax its shared commitment to Europe. Pistorius was received there with full military honours.

Praise from Austin

In a speech at the Pentagon, Austin pointed to what Germany is doing to defend Ukraine and NATO, as well as security in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans.

“Whether it is deterring Kremlin aggression or promoting stability in the Indo-Pacific region, our two proud democracies are moving forward,” Austin said, describing Germany as a “force for peace and security.” “Germany remains one of our strongest and most reliable partners,” he said.

Billion orders in the United States of America

The previous day, Pistorius visited a helicopter factory owned by Boeing Defense in Philadelphia. The CH47-F Chinook heavy transport helicopter is produced there. Germany has ordered 60 of them in the latest Block II variant for the German Army. In the future, they will be the backbone of the Air Force when it comes to transporting personnel and materials. Pistorius was assured that everything was on schedule and delivery could take place by 2027.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Germany has ordered weapons and equipment for the German army worth 23 billion euros from the United States. In total, there are about 380 contracts with US defense companies.

Ukraine wants to regain the initiative

With the arrival of Western weapons, Ukraine wants to regain the initiative on the front. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a press conference with the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Mitsola, in Kiev that the Russian armed forces are currently launching an attack in eastern Ukraine, and this is not a secret.

“As soon as the arms shipments arrive, we will stop their initiative,” Zelensky promised. But his army needs „something strong” to make this happen. An outdoor press conference in front of the presidential office was canceled shortly afterwards due to an air raid warning.

According to Zelensky, the Russian army is currently preparing for a major attack. For this purpose, forces will be gathered in the north and east of the front. However, not everything is going as well for the Russians as they thought. The Ukrainian president emphasized: “It is not that I want to raise your morale. This is the reality.”