Germany's equivalent of Air Force One was once again in trouble with the government, with one suffering an engine failure and another forced to divert after Eritrea refused to allow it to use its airspace, leaving the foreign minister stranded in Saudi Arabia. disappointed.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Verbock, a Green Party politician, is planning a three-day diplomatic visit to East Africa, but her travel attempt is marred by a series of failures and accidents on government-operated Executive Airlines. interrupted again by. .
Her first attempt to fly on Wednesday, a white-painted Airbus A319 carrying government officials, had to be canceled due to engine failure. report die welt. Burbock flew a Luftwaffe military Airbus A321LR painted military gray, but even this second aircraft was not destined to reach its destination as expected.
Mr Birbock's flight to Djibouti required passing through Eritrean airspace, and the captain of the German executive flight carrying the Green Party politician was unable to obtain permission from air traffic control to enter. Surprisingly, a direct call to the Eritrean government to get the permit signed failed as a power outage in Djibouti prevented the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs from receiving communications.
January 24, 2024, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: A321LR crew distributes snacks en route to Jeddah. En route to Djibouti in East Africa, the delegation had to first stop in Saudi Arabia because its Air Force Airbus was not allowed to fly over Eritrea. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa (Photo by Michael Kappeler/picture Alliance via Getty Images)
January 24, 2024, Siddah, Saudi Arabia: An Air Force Airbus A321LR is parked at an airfield. En route to Djibouti in East Africa, the delegation had to first stop in Saudi Arabia because the Air Force Air Readiness Force's Airbuses were not allowed to fly over Eritrea. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa (Photo by Michael Kappeler/picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Unable to proceed over the Red Sea, where there is ongoing conflict between Western navies and missile-armed Houthi rebels, the Burbok plane diverted to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to refuel. It was hoped that he would try to fly to Djibouti again the same day, but it soon became clear that this would not be possible and Mr Burbock ended up spending the night. Burbock finally arrived in Africa on Thursday, flying around the country in a turboprop Dash 7 he chartered between meetings.
Failure may be frustrating for the Bearboks, but it's not something they're used to. As reported, she was also last year when the Green Party politician tried to fly her to Australia for a diplomatic visit, but her private airliner disappointed her. Her Burbock's first flight was on her way south when she stopped in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for refueling, but on her retakeoff her landing flaps failed and she crashed at her cruising altitude. could not rise high enough to reach
The jet (equivalent to Germany's Air Force One and named Konrad Adenauer after the first chancellor of the Federal Republic) returned to Abu Dhabi for repairs, but a second flight to Australia the next day also failed. did. An error has occurred. Burbock was forced to abandon his diplomatic visit completely and returned to Germany on a private plane.
This was just one of a series of airline failures for executive aircraft intended to transport German politicians. As previously reported:
…This is one such embarrassment for the German leadership, which on the one hand is dependent on the Luftwaffe, but on the other hand has long had huge underfunding of its armed forces. Mr Birbock was stranded in Qatar earlier this year after a government plane malfunctioned, as did former Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2018. Other government ministers were similarly affected, including then-defense minister and current Eurocrat chief Ussloula von der Leyen and Olaf Scholz. breakdown.
As Breitbart London reported, VIPs aren't the only ones suffering from these problems. In 2014, Germany sent massive amounts of military equipment to Kurds fighting ISIS, including more than 100 vehicles, thousands of battle rifles, machine guns, anti-tank rockets, tens of thousands of grenades, and millions of rounds of ammunition. When they wanted to donate, they said: The aircraft scheduled to carry out the mission broke down on the runway, resulting in significant delays.
To make matters worse, when the Luftwaffe proved unable to repair its aircraft, the spare planes it had borrowed from other countries to save the day also broke down.
This situation was not without its critics. In fact, the poor state of the German military was heavily criticized by the head of the Luftwaffe, Lieutenant General Karl Müllner. General Müllner suffered what was described as a “completely involuntary” dismissal due to criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel's leadership of the Luftwaffe. 2018.
As reported, Müllner's “retirement” was accompanied by a ceremonial flyby over Berlin by four Luftwaffe Eurofighter jets, out of Germany's theoretical fleet of 128 jets. Only four aircraft were ready for combat.
Germany's Green politicians will not be given VIP jets after second attempt to repair government plane failshttps://t.co/sTtRdbGVAH
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 15, 2023
