German chancellor Angela Merkel will not be able to attend the opening of
the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her government plane was forced
to return due to a technical defect on Thursday and is currently blocked in
Cologne. The chancellor would fly to Argentina on Friday by regular
commercial airliner.
 
A flight with a replacement aircraft was not possible on Thursday evening,
confirmed government spokesman Steffen Seibert, because no crew were
available anymore.
 
Merkel, who is accompanied by German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz,
spends the night in a hotel in Bonn. On Friday morning she travels to
Madrid to fly from there to Buenos Aires.
 
According to her spokesperson, it will now be examined to what extent the
meetings that Merkel had planned in Argentina can be moved.
 
The German government aircraft 'Konrad Adenauer', an Airbus A340-300, had
to return over the Netherlands after one hour of flying. It landed safely
in Cologne. It is not the first time that the plane has a defect. Both
Minister of Finance Scholz at the IMF summit in Indonesia, and President
Frank-Walter Steinmeier on his Africa trip, suffered from technical
problems.
 
According to the Rheinische Post, researchers are looking into sabotage.
But according to the German Air Force, the incident has nothing to do with
criminal activities.

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