German Interior Minister's plane makes emergency landing: Details
Photo: German Interior Minister's plane makes emergency landing (wikimedia.org)
A German Air Force government aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at Leipzig airport due to an unexpected technical malfunction, Bild reports.
The incident occurred yesterday, July 21. The Airbus A319 was flying from Berlin to its base in Cologne when, 10 minutes after takeoff, a warning message appeared in the cockpit. The commander decided to divert the aircraft to Leipzig airport.
According to the media outlet, this plane had earlier transported the Federal Minister of Interior Alexander Dobrindt and his delegation to Berlin.
The Interior Minister returned from Poland, where together with his Polish counterpart Tomasz Semoniak, he assessed the situation at the EU's external border with Belarus. No one was injured in the incident, and the cause is under investigation.
Incidents involving government planes in Germany
In 2019, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was forced to delay his departure from Ethiopia due to a malfunction in the government plane, and then-Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was stranded in Mali because of technical problems with the A319.
Former Chancellor Angela Merkel had to fly to Argentina for the G20 summit in 2018 on a commercial flight after the A340 Konrad Adenauer broke down. In 2023, then-Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was also unable to depart on a visit to Australia due to a technical malfunction of the government aircraft.
