2023-08-15 04:19:39
International flight to Australia
Baerbock’s onward flight also failed on the second attempt – now she wants to fly line
Status: 06:19 a.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
It didn’t work the second time either: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock now wants to travel to Australia by scheduled flight
Source: dpa/Sina Schuldt
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Foreign Secretary Annalena Baerbock was en route to Australia when the pilot noticed a problem. For safety reasons, the machine landed in Abu Dhabi. After a test flight, it was to continue with a long delay. But nothing came of it either.
Annalena Baerbock tried twice within 24 hours on Monday to come to Australia with an Airbus that was ready to fly. The Foreign Minister’s annoyance at the double breakdown with the Bundeswehr machine is likely to be quite great. Despite a successful test flight over the Gulf Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the Air Force’s assurance that this time the long-planned business trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji would really work out, the Greens politician didn’t make it there even on the second attempt. But she doesn’t show her grudge. And she doesn’t want to give up at all.
A technical defect in the landing flaps is the reason why the A340-300 aircraft does not quickly gain altitude and speed after take-off at 1:00 a.m. local time (11:00 p.m. CEST). The same problem had already occurred the night before, now the contrite flight captain announces the renewed bad news. But already on board, Baerbock and her team decide to attempt the trip a third time. If the Bundeswehr doesn’t make it, you just fly line, is the motto.
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Because the Federal Foreign Minister should be clear: The recent breakdown of the government plane is embarrassing. But the political damage if they canceled and turned around their hosts Down Under would be many times greater.
Planned a week in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji
Baerbock took a week to fly the German – and European – flag in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. The Federal Foreign Minister wants to send an important signal by recognizing the support of the federal states for the strict condemnation of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in the United Nations. For the past year and a half, Baerbock has campaigned intensively for the West’s common front against Moscow.
The indigenous people have been waiting for years for the return of cultural assets from the colonial era to the indigenous people of the Kaurna, which was actually planned for this Tuesday in Australia. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong is said to have made appointments at a delegates’ meeting of her party so that she could still receive Baerbock. And in Fiji, the entire cabinet has announced that it will be opening the first German embassy in the island state. The minister does not want to disappoint the expectations.
The signal should not be: That’s enough, you’ve tried it twice, now you’re flying back, it says on board. Especially since there would be no room for a quick catch-up date in the near future due to a tight schedule. If the third attempt works, Baerbock now wants to attend the planned dates in the Australian metropolis Sydney on Wednesday.
Baerbock: “Sometimes it’s really darn”
Even before she left, Baerbock had made the goal of her visit clear. “Despite a huge distance of more than 16,000 kilometers, we can rely on each other like close neighbors, learn from each other as good friends and support each other as strategic partners,” she emphasized. She wants to tighten the “bond of cooperation that connects us with our value partners around the world”. She does not want to do without this signal.
Because from Baerbock’s point of view, there is a lot at stake in the region. The Indo-Pacific as an area in which, given China’s increasingly aggressive behavior, the international order of the 21st century will be decisively shaped – and the Australians also see their freedom threatened by Beijing’s striving for power, while the Chinese offer themselves as partners elsewhere. And it’s about the climate crisis, the consequences of which are hitting the islands of Fiji, New Zealand and Australia particularly hard.
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In an initial reaction, Baerbock was still contrite on board the Luftwaffe machine: “Sometimes it’s really darn.” The flight captain, an experienced and calm-looking man with decades of experience in the cockpit, had previously had to concede over the intercom: “If you open look at the monitors, you will also recognize the same flight behavior as yesterday. We’re just circling. Unfortunately, the same problem that we had yesterday happened to us again.” He’s been doing it for a few years, said the captain. “But something like that has never happened in the history of the readiness to fly.”
When the message came over the loudspeaker, Baerbock in her VIP area at the front of the plane already knew. 15 minutes after take-off, the Airbus veered off course again and flew back towards the desert emirate. Before landing again, tons of kerosene had to be dumped in order to reduce the weight of the machine, which was fully fueled for the long haul – so the plane circled in the sky for minutes.
The pilot had delayed turning off a little. He wanted to at least inform the minister personally. Before she would notice, as the day before, that the flight to Australia will not work for the time being. The first time, Baerbock, like many others on board, immediately noticed the circles that the machine had drawn on the flight monitors.
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