Captain: Something like this has never happened before
Another breakdown: Baerbock’s flight canceled after 15 minutes
08/15/2023, 12:17 am
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s onward journey from Abu Dhabi to Australia takes just 15 minutes. The second attempt is also aborted. The machine does not pick up speed after the start and has to turn back. Apparently there had previously been a successful test flight.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock failed on her second attempt to fly to Australia with the Air Force. According to a dpa reporter, the flight captain announced this on board the machine. 15 minutes after take-off at 1 a.m. local time, the Airbus A340-300 veered off course again and initially flew back towards Abu Dhabi. The machine climbed at the beginning, but didn’t pick up any speed. Baerbock was contrite in a first reaction: “Sometimes it’s really darn.”
“Mission aborted! The error occurred again with the machine that has now been refueled,” said the Air Force in the online service X, which was previously called Twitter. “We land back in Abu Dhabi.” The spokesman for the Federal Foreign Office, Sebastian Fischer, also said: “The technical problem has just recurred despite previous flight tests. We are now returning to Abu Dhabi. That is very annoying,” he wrote to X.
“The flap enlargements, the wing enlargements can no longer be retracted. They locked themselves again (…). We spoke to Lufthansa test pilots. This error does not exist,” said the captain after he had informed about the recent return . “For those who are anxious, there is no need to worry at all. We have enough fuel. When we reach our landing weight again afterwards, like yesterday, then it will be a completely normal landing.” He’s been doing it for a few years, said the captain, “but nothing like this has ever happened in the history of readiness to fly.”
Pilot no longer optimistic
After another mishap on the second attempt, the pilot gave a less than optimistic prognosis over the on-board microphone: “For us, the flight is over today. Since we are absolutely in the dark at the moment as to which computer is to blame for the misery, it will be for probably not give us another flight to Australia, even tomorrow.” They are now trying to find out how the plane can even get back to Germany.
Even before the planned onward flight, the captain had explained the cause of the breakdown on the first attempt. The reason turned out to be “a faulty pressure switch that measures the hydraulic pressures and then transmits them to the computer. This computer then controls the even extension and retraction of the landing flaps.” The computer then automatically blocks the flaps so that there is no asymmetrical wing position. It is the second such breakdown within 24 hours. Already early Monday morning, three minutes after take-off at 3.33 a.m. local time, the flight captain noticed a defect in the retraction of the flaps. After the crew had drained around 80 tons of kerosene from the fully tanked plane in a two-hour maneuver over the desert emirate and the sea, it landed back in Abu Dhabi at 5:33 a.m. local time.
During the test flight everything seemed to be fine
On Monday evening everything had actually looked good. “We have just carried out a functional check during a test flight,” said the Air Force on the online service X, formerly known as Twitter. There were no problems. “We are therefore planning to continue our journey to Sydney later this evening,” it said.
Baerbock left for a week-long trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji on Sunday. There were also technical problems with the government machine during the Foreign Minister’s trip to the Gulf in May. At that time, Baerbock had to extend her stay in the Emirate of Qatar by one day because the Air Force Airbus was unable to return as planned due to a flat tire.