German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock cancels flight to Australia after plane issues at Abu Dhabi: Carrier is forced to dump 160,000 litres of fuel in the air

The German foreign minister embarrassingly had to cut short a trip to Australia when her aging VIP plane suffered repeated mechanical failures, forcing it to dump nearly two full tanks of fuel into the atmosphere.

Annalena Baerbock, a Greens member of the ruling tri-party coalition, was sent back in the air twice after her government A340 failed to retract its landing flaps shortly after takeoff from Abu Dhabi to Australia last Monday and Tuesday.

German journalist Patrick Deikmann, who was part of the entourage, stated that the plane had attempted to take off three times from Abu Dhabi, where the plane landed for refueling, in a debacle he simply labeled “embarrassing.”

The two times the plane took off, the plane experienced problems retracting the landing flaps, forcing the plane to land quickly.

The plane was too heavy to land safely back in Abu Dhabi until about 80,000 liters of fuel was jettisoned on each occasion.

Ms Baerbock, who has touted banning Germans from domestic flights to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, took to the social media site Twitter – which has now been renamed X – to express her frustration.

“We have tried everything: unfortunately it is logistically impossible to continue my Indo-Pacific journey without the malfunctioning aircraft,” she wrote.

“This is more than annoying. There are few countries that are geographically so far away and at the same time so close to us as Australia and New Zealand.

‘Although both countries are literally on the other side of the world from our perspective, freedom and democracy are in our common DNA.’

Secretary of State Penny Wong replied that she “shared Mrs. Baerbock’s disappointment.”

Australia and Germany are aligned in values ​​and aspirations,” Senator Wong wrote.

“We have a lot more to do together. We’ll see you next time.’

Ms. Baerbock, who took a commercial flight back to Germany from Abu Dhabi, was scheduled to meet Senaor Wong, attend the Matildas vs Lionesses women’s football game in Sydney on Wednesday and speak at the Lowy Institute.

Ms Baerbock said it was ‘beyond annoying’ that her VIP plane had not arrived in Australia.

She is also said to be in charge of handing over First Nations artifacts, including a spear, a fishing net and two smaller throwing sticks or clubs housed in the Grassi Museum in Leipzig to the Kaurna people of Canberra.

Wall Street Journal correspondent Bojan Pancevski said the trip was designed to showcase Berlin’s major policy shift on controlling China and involvement in the Indo-Pacific.

“It was planned for almost a year,” he wrote on X.

“It’s designed to demonstrate a new determination. All foiled by a malfunctioning plane.’

He said Mrs. Baerbock would soon try to do the trip ‘again’.

Berlin-based Thorsten Benner of the Global Public Policy Institute was also in the tour group.

“Anyone who experienced German FM during the trip received a clear message: This was a journey that was very important to her and very close to her heart,” he said.

“To say ‘thank you’ to Australia and New Zealand for their support of Ukraine, and to signal Germany’s commitment to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific, and to cooperate with Australia and also with the island nations in the Pacific on key issues such as dealing with China, critical resources, climate and the energy transition.

“Baerbock did everything he could to make the trip work…but the stars didn’t align in the end.”

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong took to social media to express her disappointment at the aborted visit

“As embarrassing as the government jet disaster is for Germany, it will not alter Baerbock and her government’s personal partnership with the Indo-Pacific region, and Australia in particular.”

The A340 Mrs Baerbock was on is more than 20 years old and was transferred from Germany’s national airline Deutsche Lufthansa for use by VIPs more than a decade ago.

It previously caused the red faces of the German government when it was forced to return to Cologne, delaying former chancellor Angela Merkel’s arrival at a G20 meeting in Buenos Aires.

The German government has since ordered two newer Airbus A350s, but apparently neither was available for Ms Baerbock’s trip.

In the wake of the failure of the Australian voyage, the Luftwaffe announced that it would immediately withdraw its two remaining A340s from service.