Annalena Baerbock has arrived in Australia — eight and a half months later than initially planned. She traveled aboard a new plane after Berlin's breakdown-prone old fleet became a focus of derision.
Germany's ambassador to Australia, Beate Grzeski, and Australian Foreign Ministry official Chris Cannan greeted Baerbock in AdelaideImage: Sina Schuldt/dpa/picture alliance
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A plane carrying German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock landed in the southern Australian city of Adelaide on Thursday for a trip that had to be abandoned last August.
Baerbock made the journey on one of Berlin's new VIP planes named Konrad Adenauer — the predecessor of which was dogged with frequent breakdowns.
Why was the previous trip postponed?
The aircraft was being closely watched after last year's trip to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji had to be abandoned because of repeated mechanical malfunctions.
The technical problems on Baerbock's last Australia trip were with an older government aircraft — an Airbus A340 also named after Germany's first post-war chancellor, Konrad Adenauer — which has since been taken out of service.
Baerbock only made it as far as Abu Dhabi that time around.
Grounded: Problems with Germany's government planes
Germany's government Airbus planes have experienced several issues over the past few months. The latest difficulty prevented Chancellor Angela Merkel from showing up on time for the G20 summit in Argentina.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. von Jutrczenka
Late to G20 summit
While en route to a G20 summit in Buenos Aires in November 2018, the A340-300 "Konrad Adenauer" carrying German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz had to make an unexpected landing at the Cologne/Bonn Airport. Merkel showed up late to the conference in the Argentinian capital.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Berg
Rodents? You're kidding right?
It was the second consecutive month in which the "Konrad Adenauer" needed to be grounded. The A340 also left Scholz stranded in Indonesia following a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in October 2018 after rodents gnawed through electric cables.
Image: Imago/photothek
Trouble in Africa
The "Konrad Adenauer" isn't the only Airbus belonging to the German government that has experienced problems. The A340 "Theodor Heuss" jet carrying German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier experienced technical problems during his trip to several countries in Africa.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. von Jutrczenka
Tell them I'll be late
Steinmeier also had his fair share of woes with the "Konrad Adenauer" jet. The German president's trip to Belarus in June 2018 was delayed due to problems with the plane's hydraulic system.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Carstensen
Pressure starts to tell
German Development Minister Gerd Müller's schedule was thrown into chaos when he was forced to cancel a visit to Namibia in January 2018 — because of plane trouble. Müller was scheduled to depart Malawi when his Bombardier Global 5000 was unable to take off due to a defective pressure valve. He was eventually able to continue on to Zambia on a commercial flight.
Image: imago/U. Grabowsky
I hear it's snowing at home
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was grounded in Ethiopia yet again when the "Theodore Heuss" was unable to embark on its return flight due to an air pressure problem. The delay would seem to put Steinmeier ahead of Olaf Scholz for the title of German official most often stranded due to technical problems.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Pedersen
Foreign minister stranded in Mali
On February 28, 2019, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was forced to stay overnight in the capital of Mali, Bamako, after his government plane had a mechanical problem. Maas strugged off the delay, saying he had traveled all over the world without a problem.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
The "Konrad Adenauer" strikes back with a burst tire
On April 1, 2019, the "Konrad Adenauer" hit back after a four-month overhaul. The ageing Airbus behaved badly on its first outing after its forced hiatus. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was on board when one of the tire's burst upon landing in New York. The plane had to be towed to a parking space, with the delay forcing Maas to miss an appointment at the UN Security Council.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Crash landing
Also in April 2019, a Bombardier Global 5000 was severely damaged in an emergency landing after problems during a test flight. Pilots lost control of the plane shortly after take off and when attempting to land, where it jolted off the runway. The flight was a test flight after weeks of maintenance on the aircraft.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Russ
Maas delayed again
In May, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was delayed for a third time after engine trouble struck the Bundeswehr A321 he was travelling on for his first trip to Bulgaria. The plane's pilot blamed the failure of an auxiliary turbine, which supplies compressed air to the plane's engines, for the tardiness.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. von Jutrczenka
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Merkel missed the start of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires when the jet experienced a "serious malfunction" in the air and had to turn back to land in Cologne. She finally arrived in the Argentine capital aboard a commercial flight.
A week before that, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier was delayed during a trip to several African countries when the government's "Theodor Heuss" jet — also an Airbus A340 — experienced problems.
The previous Konrad Adenauer also suffered breakdowns in New York and Beijing.
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What's planned on the trip?
Baerbock was welcomed by German Ambassador to Australia Beate Grzeski and Chris Cannan, the head of the European Department of Australia's Foreign Ministry.
She was set to meet Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Friday and visit a cybersecurity center and an Australian Navy post in Adelaide.
From Adelaide, provided there are no technical hitches, Baerbock is set to travel on to New Zealand before moving to become the first German foreign minister to visit the South Pacific island state of Fiji.
In total, the Green Party politician will cover about 43,000 kilometers (some 26,700 miles), spending more than 50 hours on the plane.
Ahead of her visit, Baerbock noted that the region is becoming increasingly important to Germany for strategic and economic reasons.
This article was written using material provided by the DPA news agency
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