The German Air Force, which owns government aircraft, has now decided to withdraw two outdated A340s from circulation at an early date. Instead, the government will fly a “strong and modern” A350 from now on. Two of them are already in use, and the third is expected to be delivered next year.
This is not a solution to Barbock’s short-term problems. It was supposed to arrive in Sydney on Monday, but bad luck showed up after a stopover in Abu Dhabi. After takeoff from the principality, it turned out that the landing flaps could no longer be retracted. Her plane had to return to the place of departure for safety reasons.
About the author
Martin Albers is the general correspondent for De Volkskrant.
Hours later, after the plane completed a successful test flight, it made a second attempt, but the problem reappeared: the landing flaps failed, preventing the plane from gaining speed or altitude.
The flight is cancelled
Barbock and her entourage considered making the trip by scheduled flights, but it turned out to be practically impossible for the large delegation. We’ve tried everything: Unfortunately, it’s not logistically possible to continue my voyage to the Indo-Pacific without the faulty plane. This is more than just annoying. He writes them diplomatically. During the visit to the area, which she says will “define the world order of the 21st century,” Barbock will return original artifacts and give an important speech, among other things.
In addition to the diplomatic setback, many commentators see it as a setback for Germany as an industrialized country as it is unable to keep government planes in the air. Initially, Burbock was supposed to fly to Australia on another government plane, but that, too, fell through. Moreover, it has happened several times in recent years that a representative of the German government has been stranded or arrived late due to plane crashes.
It happened to the Baerbuck itself in May when it had to make an emergency landing in Qatar en route to Saudi Arabia. The current chancellor, Olaf Scholz, as finance minister, had to take a scheduled trip to the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires in 2018 with then-chancellor Angela Merkel due to a malfunction in the communication system. In 2017, a government plane was found to be defective after the first flight to Lithuania.
Unloading 80 tons of kerosene
What makes the fiasco even more painful for Greens Minister Berbock is that the plane had to dump 80 tons of kerosene over the sea and desert to be light enough to land. Bundestag member Jessen Lutzsch of opposition party Die Linke said government aviation’s behavior was “expensive, unreliable and leaves an excessive environmental footprint”. “Climate conservation and the national budget is not going to work that way.” Lötzsch therefore suggests that members of the government simply take scheduled flights from now on, a suggestion that Baerbock should adopt at least for the return trip to Berlin.
