Canceled Baerbock trip
Strack-Zimmermann: Breakdown jet incident is “just embarrassing”
08/15/2023 1:26 p.m
A defect in the government aircraft forces Foreign Minister Baerbock to cancel the planned trip to the Pacific at the last minute. FDP politician Strack-Zimmermann finds that shameful. For the left, the glitch is another sign that the readiness to fly should be completely abolished.
The Chair of the Bundestag Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has criticized the fact that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had to cut short her trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji due to technical problems with the Air Force’s A340. “It’s just embarrassing that the foreign minister couldn’t continue her trip,” the FDP politician told the editorial network Germany.
“Mrs. Merkel also had massive problems with a machine of the same type.” She added: “Both machines of this type, which are still in the Luftwaffe’s inventory, should probably be retired in the coming autumn. The Luftwaffe would do well to bring it forward immediately and procure new ones as soon as possible.” Shortly before, the Air Force had announced that it would withdraw two A340 government jets from service at an early stage.
Baerbock’s machine for the Bundeswehr’s flight readiness service had the same breakdown twice on Monday and Tuesday within 24 hours. After takeoff, the landing flaps could no longer be retracted. Baerbock then canceled her planned Pacific trip at the last minute.
“Flight shame is a buzzword for the Greens”
After this incident, the left demanded the abolition of the readiness to fly and a switch to scheduled flights. “It’s time for the federal government to turn the tide when it comes to its own exaggerated claims. You can’t preach water and drink wine,” said Gesine Loetzsch, head housekeeper of the left-wing faction, the “Spiegel”. “The readiness to fly is expensive, unreliable and causes an oversized ecological footprint. So it won’t work to save the climate and the federal budget,” said the deputy parliamentary group leader. “My experience is that there are enough reliable airlines that the federal government can book.”
Even before the incident in Abu Dhabi, left-wing politicians had criticized the readiness to fly. In the spring of 2023, for example, a request from the left faction to the Ministry of Defense revealed that the environmental record of the government machine was devastating. According to this, in 2021 the planes used by the flight readiness service consumed an average of 33 liters of kerosene per passenger for 100 kilometers travelled. In 2022 it was 23 liters. According to the aviation industry, private airlines need an average of about 3.6 liters.
“Flight shame is one of the buzzwords for the Greens,” said the left-wing MP Lötzsch to the magazine at the time. “But their ministers are shameless when it comes to their own flights.” According to the Bundeswehr, 80 tons of kerosene had to be drained during the breakdown over the United Arab Emirates (UAE).