hancellor Merkel will arrive late at the G20 summit: Due to a technical defect, the government machine had to land in Cologne. Apparently the situation was more dangerous than initially thought.
Because of a technical defect in the government machine Chancellor Angela Merkel had to interrupt her flight to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires. It will continue for her and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz only in the early morning.
According to media reports, the defect was more serious than initially thought. Even Merkel herself confirmed that. After the events she could say: „It was a serious disturbance,“ she said in Bonn, where she will spend the night.
After only about one hour of flight time, the Airbus „Konrad Adenauer“ was reversed with the head of government and the Minister of Finance on board over the Netherlands. The captain informed the Chancellor and the traveling journalists that they were no longer on the 15-hour flight to Argentina: A technical problem had caused some electrical systems on the plane to fail. The machine finally landed safely in Cologne.
Onward flight over Madrid
The Chancellor will now arrive late for the G20 summit: A direct onward flight in a replacement machine is not possible, said government spokesman Steffen Seibert before the traveling journalists. This is due, inter alia, to the service hours of crew and flight captains.
According to Seibert, Merkel and Scholz will fly to Madrid in the early morning, with the Air Force ready to fly, and then by scheduled flight to Buenos Aires. The Chancellor wants to try to arrive at the evening program and dinner of the heads of state and government. Everything else should then be clarified locally, such as the retrieval of bilateral talks. During the day, meetings with Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri and US President Donald Trump were planned.
Complete failure of the communication system?
The „mirror“ had reported that the entire communication system had failed with the ground. Such a complete failure of the communication system, which was secured by several replacement systems, according to the news magazine according to aviation as a dangerous emergency. Therefore, the pilots had immediately decided to cancel the flight to the G20 summit in Argentina.
According to information from the German Press Agency, large parts of an electronic system that is so urgently needed for flight operations should have failed. Kerosene has been drained across the Atlantic to reduce the weight of the Airbus fueled for the transatlantic flight. It was partly the question of whether a landing was possible.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert did not want to comment on the defect at night. He asked for your understanding, but for technical details and for error analysis, the flight readiness and the Ministry of Defense would have to comment.
