German foreign minister abandons Pacific tour : A 340 had two failures in 24 hours.
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German foreign minister abandons Pacific tour : A 340 had two failures in 24 hours.
Taking off from Abu Dhabi the crew saw there was a flaps problem and they returned to their take-off point. Twenty-four hours later another take-off and same problem. This caused the abandonment of the planned visits to NZ , Australia and some Pacific islands.Baerbock - the Foreign Minister - has had lots of aircraft problems: in May there was a defect in Berlin preventing take-off and a replacement aircraft was necessary , then a new tyre was needed in Quatar , and this had to be flown in from Germany. This apart, many German ministers have suffered aircraft failures over the past 10 years. and modernisation was supposed to have eliminated this embarrassment.
The planes are provided by the Luftwaffe and newspapers commented that the problems are down to the dramatic decline in military expenditure, and not ordering new, necessary equipment on the basis " If you don't have it , then it can't go wrong ".
The two A 340's are going to be sold prematurely ( as soon as possible ) and A 350's in the fleet will be used instead.
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/polit...rbock-100.html
The planes are provided by the Luftwaffe and newspapers commented that the problems are down to the dramatic decline in military expenditure, and not ordering new, necessary equipment on the basis " If you don't have it , then it can't go wrong ".
The two A 340's are going to be sold prematurely ( as soon as possible ) and A 350's in the fleet will be used instead.
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/polit...rbock-100.html
Last edited by Tartiflette Fan; 16th Aug 2023 at 08:11.
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I really wonder why they don't simply send a spare plane as soon as it becomes obvious that there's an issue with the original one. They have at least two A340s and two A350s.
Instead of blundering around and making Germany look bad, just send a second plane (possibly with an additional spare crew as well), just to make double sure that such an embarrassment doesn't happen. Also, possibly invest into maintenance of the aircraft... unless they want a repeat of the Starfighter story. Maybe they should randomly select members of the parliament to come along, this might increase the motivation to vote for the money for actual maintenance instead of just replacing broken parts...
Instead of blundering around and making Germany look bad, just send a second plane (possibly with an additional spare crew as well), just to make double sure that such an embarrassment doesn't happen. Also, possibly invest into maintenance of the aircraft... unless they want a repeat of the Starfighter story. Maybe they should randomly select members of the parliament to come along, this might increase the motivation to vote for the money for actual maintenance instead of just replacing broken parts...
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Also, my previous info was incorrect: they have 2x A340 and 3x A350. Also, 3x A319 and 3x A321. It's not for lack of planes. IMHO, it's for "we need to be seen as saving money at any cost". I'm also pretty sure it would have been pushed as a serious scandal by our right wing press if they'd just sent a spare plane. "Green minister has empty jets flying around" yada yada yada...
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The A350s were bought after a couple of embarrassing failures of the A340 and I believe A310s (not sure when they were phased out).
Lufthansa are running quite a few A340s without the drama. Why do the government A340, which are maintained by LH Technik according to schedules by Airbus, have so many more problems?
Lufthansa are running quite a few A340s without the drama. Why do the government A340, which are maintained by LH Technik according to schedules by Airbus, have so many more problems?
Worked with LH in the 90s. When there was a GAF flight we were usually the ground co-ordinators. It always amazed me that there was such a marked difference in efficiency between how the Air Force and LH worked. If there was a war Germany would be so much better off getting LH to managed their logistics.
Anilv
Anilv
Lufthansa IS doing their maintenance. This seems to be a part of the problem: Schedules and fleet procedures are made for airline operations and not for VVIP aircaft alternating between sitting idle for days and then be on tight schedules far away from their base in the media spotlight. I wonder why they did not schedule their brand new ACJ350 for long distance trips like this, but the oldest birds in the fleet? Those A340 are second hand Lufthansa aircraft converted to VVIP only later on.
What the RAF did was the smartest, most useful and flexible: Get some new MRTTs with a VIP interior.
What the RAF did was the smartest, most useful and flexible: Get some new MRTTs with a VIP interior.
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Any A340-Pilot available here? There were suspects, that the repeated flap failure (flap retraction) was due to the maximum fueled aircraft (flight vom Abu Dhabi to Canberra) which might have bended the wing in an unusal manner. This suspect is nourished by the fact, that a test flight was done after the first failure/fuel dump/return to AUH and subsequent servicing by the Luftwaffe's technicians, supported by LH Technik via Teams. This test flight with only minor fueling was eventless with several flap cycles, but on the second attempt departing to Australia the failure happened again.
Sources say, that usually this A340 was never maximum fueled, even on long distance trip to South America, so there was no chance to detect this "hidden problem".
Additonally these aircraft don't fly regularly, instead being parked on the ground most time. For anybody knowing that an aircraft has either to fly or to be in a technical check this appears plausible too.
Political concerns are now raised as the foreign minister is from the Green Party in Germany, being opposed to flying and any vehicle using combustion engines. When this minister (Mrs. Baerbock) was nominated foreign minister, she promised using more scheduled flights instead of Luftwaffe. But this party promised to be the most lying party - trying to prohibit anything in order to stop climate change, but not applying that to themselves. Another example is an unfinished act, they want to prohibit any gas/oil fueled heating to be replaced by heat pumps (even were they are not suitable) but fail to equip their head office in Berlin with a heat pump for years already.
Sources say, that usually this A340 was never maximum fueled, even on long distance trip to South America, so there was no chance to detect this "hidden problem".
Additonally these aircraft don't fly regularly, instead being parked on the ground most time. For anybody knowing that an aircraft has either to fly or to be in a technical check this appears plausible too.
Political concerns are now raised as the foreign minister is from the Green Party in Germany, being opposed to flying and any vehicle using combustion engines. When this minister (Mrs. Baerbock) was nominated foreign minister, she promised using more scheduled flights instead of Luftwaffe. But this party promised to be the most lying party - trying to prohibit anything in order to stop climate change, but not applying that to themselves. Another example is an unfinished act, they want to prohibit any gas/oil fueled heating to be replaced by heat pumps (even were they are not suitable) but fail to equip their head office in Berlin with a heat pump for years already.
You can bet your hypocritical a** that they examined the options and decided that taking the A340 was the only possible solution taking into account the number of persons traveling, further goods to be transported, the schedule and the destinations.
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Guess, how many px seats are available each day from Germany via XYZ to Canberra (initial destination). Aren't there countless of airlines from Europe, Middle East and Asia incl. Australia with services on these routes? The delegation was 120 people incl. journalists and others, so no harm would have occured, it this group would have been split on several aircraft? Also this journey wasn't spontaneous, but planned months in advance, so enough time to book everyone.
So this women wasted a total of estimated 250 to of fuel (the flights from Berlin to AUH and back included), but each houseowner has to justify why using gas or oil for heating. This is what makes people here upset.
They almost also lost a GLEX a few years ago due to mtx screwing up the MFS riggings 180 degrees the wrong way.. only ended with dual wing strikes due to awsome flying by the crew
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They could charter one of those jets - but they don´t travel alone. They need their advisors, a couple of business people plus many journalists.
<br />.....<br />Political concerns are now raised as the foreign minister is from the Green Party in Germany, being opposed to flying and any vehicle using combustion engines. When this minister (Mrs. Baerbock) was nominated foreign minister, she promised using more scheduled flights instead of Luftwaffe. But this party promised to be the most lying party - trying to prohibit anything in order to stop climate change, but not applying that to themselves. Another example is an unfinished act, they want to prohibit any gas/oil fueled heating to be replaced by heat pumps (even were they are not suitable) but fail to equip their head office in Berlin with a heat pump for years already.