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German Chancellor's A-340 Diverts to CGN enroute G-20

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German Chancellor's A-340 Diverts to CGN enroute G-20

Old 4th Dec 2018, 16:00
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There are obviously some doubts concerning the explanations in this story, new newspaper article claims
Quote (Google translate): Contrary to what government officials have suggested in initial responses, security agencies can not yet conclusively state that it was all about technical failure. There are apparently indications from the friendly foreign countries. Experts had been skeptical as soon as the incident became known that both the radio and at the same time the device for discharging kerosene had failed
(go to tagesspiegel.de-zwischenfall-vor-g20-gipfel)
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Old 5th Dec 2018, 05:37
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[[i]QUOTE=oliver2002;
AFAIK only France bought their Presidential Jet fresh from the Airbus factory.
.[/QUOTE]

This is not true. The French Presidential jet is the A330-200 MSN 240. It was a Swissair aircraft, leased from ILFC, from 1998 to 2003. It then became operated by Air Caraïbes Atlantique until 2009 when it was bought by the French State. After interior installation, it went into Presidential service in November 2010.
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Old 5th Dec 2018, 06:39
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The French Presidential jet is the A330-200 MSN 240.
Dear old HB-IQB! Well, now I can say I flew on the French presidential airplane... even though at the time of course nobody knew.
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Old 5th Dec 2018, 07:43
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Originally Posted by Lord Bracken
Isn't the Mexican one of the very early 787s with performance issues, that wouldn't ever see airline service for that reason?
Indeed, LN6 - one of the 'terrible teens'.
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Old 5th Dec 2018, 08:04
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Originally Posted by cessnapete
The 14 RAF A330 Voyager Tanker/ Transports, are owned by Air Tanker a civilian Company, and leased to the Military. Some are also on Lease to UK airlines (Thomas Cook and Jet2) and are able to be reconfigured as Tankers at relativity short notice if required. They are ETOPs approved at build. So no problems with routings when the VIP configured aircraft is used, for example, direct UK Argentina.
Not only does the design have to be ETOPS approved, but so do the maintenance procedures. Of course, many consider it good practice to maintain all aircraft in the ETOPS style (separate work on each engine instead of the same people working on both, and os on) and have a reduced rate of problems and maintenance errors as a result. But it's not just buying an ETOPS-stickered aircraft and doing nothing different from then on.

Originally Posted by Denti
I don't think the german government will buy a non-EU build aircraft for their fleet, except in cases where there is no other choice. Which one could of course argue was the reason for procuring four Global 5000. Not to mention of course, that buying from Lufthansa, let it be refurbished by Lufthansa and maintained by Lufthansa props up their precious "national champion" as well.
They couldn't possibly buy a Falcon 7X or 8X?

I have to say, a lot of operators have their maintenance done by Lufthansa Technik so they can't be that price-uncompetitive. It's a reasonable choice, even if it does support their national airline a little.
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Old 5th Dec 2018, 08:43
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Originally Posted by nicolai
They couldn't possibly buy a Falcon 7X or 8X?
Yes, there was some minor argument about that. As the predecessor was the Challenger 601, they probably just stuck with the OEM, although, even here, the whole process of procurement, cabin fit etc. was done by Lufthansa, which was the general contractor for the complete fleet renewal with Airbus A340, A319ACJ and the Globals. And one of the points that made the Global 5000s more palatable, was the fact that the engines of those jets were manufactured just outside Berlin by Rolls-Royce. And complete french products without german part? Not really wanted either i guess
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Old 6th Dec 2018, 07:35
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Re the Mexican garage sale , my Mexican friends tell me it is just a populist PR stunt. Nobody believes for 1 second that the new President will travel on public transport in the coming years. This is Mexico, not some egalitarian Scandinavian country .
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Old 6th Dec 2018, 09:00
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He will need Satcom and all the staff bells and whistles. Don't see him fly airlines for long.
A firesale will not save money now after they converted it. And it's a very early exot frame and possibly not easy to resell.
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Old 6th Dec 2018, 09:36
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None of which matters, this is politics.
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Old 6th Dec 2018, 09:52
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A bit off topic.

Does anyone have details of Vlad Putin's craft and route to Argentina?
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Old 6th Dec 2018, 12:24
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Originally Posted by garpal gumnut
A bit off topic.

Does anyone have details of Vlad Putin's craft and route to Argentina?
Let me Google that for you
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Old 6th Dec 2018, 12:55
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Would it not have made more sense to bring the back-up crew on duty 2-3 hours’ later than the main crew, so in the event of a delay or turnback, the reserve crew would still be in hours for the trip?
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Old 6th Dec 2018, 13:57
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Originally Posted by Uplinker
Would it not have made more sense to bring the back-up crew on duty 2-3 hours’ later than the main crew, so in the event of a delay or turnback, the reserve crew would still be in hours for the trip?
You should change your user name to Captain Hindsight ! :-) but it is not the way the GAF works with VIP flights .
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Old 10th Dec 2018, 13:28
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Originally Posted by ATC Watcher
Re the Mexican garage sale , my Mexican friends tell me it is just a populist PR stunt. Nobody believes for 1 second that the new President will travel on public transport in the coming years. This is Mexico, not some egalitarian Scandinavian country .
He is traveling commercial, messing up everything because each time he flies they have to inspect the aircraft and luggage twice, and by always traveling in the emergency exit row despite being a 65-year-old geezer with heart disease and high blood pressure that can't lift a door worth a damn. The bloody idiot screws up Aeromexico's scheduling while the 787 sits in VCV to be sold at an eight-figure loss because nobody wants one of the terrible teens for commercial operation (the reason MX could afford it in the first place, a rock-bottom lease).
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Old 10th Dec 2018, 16:29
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I expect he is grateful not to be the German Chancellor if you are representative of the German voter. Poor chap just cant get it right, can he? Not too sure about your medical diagnosis either........Personally I would like to see more politicians flying with the proletariat
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Old 15th Dec 2018, 19:58
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Some news from German news page DER SPIEGEL: Zwischenfall im Kanzler-Airbus bleibt rätselhaft (google this quote and use google translate for translation).
They still couldn't find the reason for the incident. The problem couldn't be reproduced. Even Lufthansa Technik have no idea how this happened. Plane is still in their workshop and not active.
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Old 16th Dec 2018, 15:40
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And apparently, as a result of that incident some parts of the government are discussing getting either a brand new A350 or A330 (NEO probably) for chancellor transportation services. Although all jets of the Flugbereitschaft are used for all of the government and quite often for MPs as well, even those of the opposition in some cases.
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Old 17th Dec 2018, 09:14
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Originally Posted by Denti
And apparently, as a result of that incident some parts of the government are discussing getting either a brand new A350 or A330 (NEO probably) for chancellor transportation services. Although all jets of the Flugbereitschaft are used for all of the government and quite often for MPs as well, even those of the opposition in some cases.
I still hope they're going to help out Lufthansa, take one or two of their A380s off their hands, pay them to turn them into VVIP planes and then pay them to keep them maintained. That way, the government can support the national airline (who have a reputation for doing a good job at that). They also might want to get a few crews of Lufthansa security clearances so they are allowed to fly the chancellor - I think the risk of having a crew subverted is less than having crews with too low flight time. Of course, Lufthansa then has to make sure these crews are not too fatigued... :-)

Also, we get a chance to spite Donnie a bit at the next G20 summit... :-P

Edit: corrected formatting
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Old 17th Dec 2018, 13:07
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Well, the A340s are maintained by Lufthansa, apparently not such a good job they did there. And the security clearance is not the big issue, it is a military airplane and requires a military license to fly, as lufthansa refuses to take ex luftwaffe pilots (except as FIs in Bremen) that could be an issue.
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Old 26th Dec 2018, 23:46
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According to a Spiegel report it was after all a Lufthansa maintenance fault. The start of the failure chain was a faulty soldering joint in one of the TRs, which usually should not be a big issue. However, after reconfiguring the aircraft the remaining system lasted only for about 70 seconds until it failed as well, as several faulty solenoids were installed in that aircraft. Additionally Lufthansa replaced the original AMU with a digital one, without updating the documentation (SB A340-23-4242), which lead to the embarrassing issue that the crew did not have the correct procedures available and therefore was unable to restore communication (apart from SATCOM to their OPS).
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