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German Chancellor's A-340 Diverts to CGN enroute G-20
From Deutsche Welle:
Angela Merkel's plane experiences technical defect en route to G20 summitGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel's plane had to turn around and land in Cologne after only an hour in the air due to a defect. The plane has experienced several issues in the past few months. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's journey to Buenos Aires for this weekend's G20 summit was interrupted on Thursday after the government's "Konrad Adenauer" Airbus experienced technological difficulties in the air.Issues with the government's A340 jets also caused travel problems for German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during several of his diplomatic trips this year. Shortly after departing from Berlin on Thursday evening, the plane circled over the Netherlands and landed at the Cologne/Bonn airport in western Germany — which is also home base for the German government's aircraft. Merkel, who is also traveling with Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and a pool of journalists, hoped to switch into a replacement plane at the airport, but it is unclear how the travel interruption will affect the chancellor's attendance at the G20 summit — which is due to start tomorrow. The pilot informed the chancellor and other passengers that a technical defect had caused several electronic systems on the Airbus A340-300 to fail, reported news agency DPA. https://www.dw.com/en/angela-merkels-plane-experiences-technical-defect-en-route-to-g20-summit/a-46514663 She normally travels on A340 16+01 Konrad Adenauer. |
Very old A340 operated by a military that she has starved of funding. A shame that it didn’t happen somwhere very remote |
The plane departed TXL and indeed turned around near AMS.
From adsbexchange.com: https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....a41a2ed3a1.jpg |
Not a Bonn voyage, then ?
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A social media update:
#Merkel’s plane stranded in Cologne on the way to #G20 due to a technical issue with the “German Air Force One”. She’ll fly commercial on Friday morning via Madrid, but miss part of the first summit day, according to journalists who accompanied her |
This incident is characteristic for German Military and Government.
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I understand there was some embarrassment last year when the same aircraft was grounded at an IMF meeting because mice had damaged the wiring. |
Be real - airplanes are having problems every now and then. We may question why Luftwaffe do not have a spare aircraft for her immediately available but otherwise there is no drama. It is not a combat mission, it is a largely civil aircraft which (I believe) operated to the same manuals as Air France or Lufthansa - what is the fuzz about? |
Originally Posted by CargoOne
(Post 10324124)
Be real - airplanes are having problems every now and then. We may question why Luftwaffe do not have a spare aircraft for her immediately available but otherwise there is no drama. It is not a combat mission, it is a largely civil aircraft which (I believe) operated to the same manuals as Air France or Lufthansa - what is the fuzz about? |
Originally Posted by Starbear
(Post 10324127)
it could have been a close shave. Nein? Sorry I’ll get my coat. |
Originally Posted by tubby linton
(Post 10323952)
Very old A340 operated by a military that she has starved of funding. A shame that it didn’t happen somwhere very remote
Originally Posted by gearlever
(Post 10323981)
This incident is characteristic for German Military and Government.
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Dear Cargo,
The reference to "close shave" was clearly prompted by your reference to "fuzz". Starbear was trying to amuse us all, and in my case he succeeded. Bull at a Gate |
Originally Posted by AndiKunzi
(Post 10324178)
And since this is PPRuNe here, some experts not only do already know what happened, but those experts also know the root cause (maintenance and age) and who was responsible for that in the QMS.
From the article linked above: The pilot informed the chancellor and other passengers that a technical defect had caused the "malfunction of several electronic systems" on the Airbus A340-300. According to multiple German media outlets, the aircraft experienced problems with its radio equipment, but the pilot said there had been no safety risks. German news magazine Der Spiegel reported the crew had to use an onboard satellite phone in order to plan the landing. According to Der Spiegel there was a backup plane in Berlin but it was decided to be too risky to fly all the way to TXL lost comm and the decision was made to land overweight in CGN on 14L. Fire trucks were rolled to spray the hot brakes. The Chancellor and her entourage were bussed to an official residence in Bonn to spend the night. Another Luftwaffe plane is scheduled to fly out in the morning to MAD to put the VIP's on Iberia 6849 MAD-EZE. Perhaps the backup plane has its own problems and they trust a scheduled airline more for the long trip. The Luftwaffe's problems with aircraft readiness even in the VIP fleet are nothing new as others have observed here. |
Complete failure of comms with ground
Gernan magazine Der Spiegel report the a/c lost the ability to communicate with the ground and the crew had to use satellite telephones to effect the diversion. On landing at CGN they were given a very short rwy, the a/c was full of fuel, and the effort required to come to a stop then stuffed up the brake systems.
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Not exactly the greenest of airliners, you would have thought they would have had some A330's in the fleet.
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Interestingly they took the shorter runway for their overweight landing to keep the longer one open for the UPS night hub. That's german pragmatism.
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Less Hair,
Do you know for sure if they were landing overweight? And if so do you even remotely think there was a performance issue in relation to the chosen runway? Or do you always land on the longest available runway, never do intersection, flex or derated takeoffs? No need to answer the question. |
They were fueled up for Buenos Aires and landed after one hour - without any problems. Fire brigade was in place to cool those hot brakes.
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Originally Posted by judebrad
(Post 10324290)
Not exactly the greenest of airliners, you would have thought they would have had some A330's in the fleet.
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2nd A340 also in EDDK, but no crew.....
Kanzlerin gestrandet trotz Ersatzmaschine |
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