Hope for a smooth flight
Baerbock’s breakdown plane should go home
8/18/2023 7:53 am
After the A340 government aircraft prevented Annalena Baerbock’s trip to Australia, the Federal Foreign Minister took the scheduled flight. Now the jet is supposed to return to Germany without them and built-in spare parts will ensure that there are no more breakdowns.
According to a media report, after Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s canceled trip to Australia, the Airbus 340 will return to Germany later in the day. According to “Spiegel”, the Air Force plans that the machine will take off from Abu Dhabi in the morning and land in Germany in the afternoon. Since the faults on the jet’s wings that occurred during Baerbock’s trip no longer occurred after the installation of spare parts, the technicians are hoping for a smooth flight.
A few days ago, Baerbock had to cancel a planned trip to Australia due to repeated problems with the plane. In two attempts to fly from Abu Dhabi in the direction of Australia, the pilots of the government aircraft could not retract the take-off flaps after take-off. The machine had to dump around 80 tons of kerosene in the air twice and then return to Abu Dhabi. The minister returned to Germany by scheduled flight. Because of the repeated problems, the Air Force decided to immediately decommission both A340 jets that the flight service has in operation.
In the days after the series of breakdowns, specialists from the Air Force and experts from Lufthansa Technik, which regularly overhauls the planes, searched for the cause of the problem. Lufthansa Technik sent various analysis devices and spare parts to Abu Dhabi. According to information from “Spiegel”, a sensor on the wings was replaced, which could have prevented the retraction of the take-off flaps. According to the information, during tests on the ground, the blocking no longer occurred after the change.