Delay due to breakdown
Buschmann’s government plane returns to parking position
May 10, 2024, 3:44 p.m
German government aircraft are known for their susceptibility to breakdowns. Now a technical problem is ruining the Federal Minister of Justice’s return trip from Venice shortly before the weekend. His machine must return to the park position. An hour-long delay is expected.
Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann and his delegation were initially unable to leave Venice after the conclusion of a meeting of the G7 justice ministers. The reason for this was a technical problem on a government aircraft. The minister and the delegation accompanying him learned that a delay of several hours was to be expected after the aircraft had to return to the parking position. The exact reason for the breakdown is not yet known.
At a meeting in Venice, the justice ministers of the G7 countries discussed how judicial authorities can use artificial intelligence (AI) in a legally safe manner. According to participants, the topic of the two-day meeting in Italy was also the question of where limits need to be formulated for the use of machine learning and robotics.
Breakdowns, breakdowns, breakdowns…
Breakdowns on government aircraft are not uncommon. Last year, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had to cancel a government trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji because of one.
A serious mishap affected then-Chancellor Angela Merkel at the end of 2018 when she was on the way to the G20 summit in Argentina with the government plane “Konrad Adenauer”. A defective component – a central switching unit in the on-board electronics – had paralyzed two radio systems that are supposed to replace each other in an emergency. The plane that started in Berlin had to turn back.
After a four-month general overhaul of the government aircraft, there was another breakdown 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 burst during landing so that the Airbus A340 could not come into the parking position on its own. It has now become known that the government aircraft “Konrad Adenauer”, which became known as the breakdown jet, is to be scrapped.