It is just before 8 pm, the Minister is currently giving a speech at the Ypslipm Cultural Festival in Bamako, when the Chief of Protocol and the German Ambassador in Mali get their heads together. There is unrest in the delegation: that can not be good.

A little later, Heiko Maas (SPD) summons his delegation. The minister informs the fellow travelers that the A319's flight readiness is broken and can not fly back to Berlin. Alternatives are currently under consideration.

A few phone calls later it is clear: The hydraulics of the chassis of the Airbus is broken. The passengers are free to set out immediately for the airport and return to Berlin by plane on the Air France plane via Paris. Instead, the delegation decides to spend another night in Bamako.

He flew now 300,000 kilometers without a breakdown, said Maas. At some point it will catch everyone.

After more than 300,000 air miles without breakdown, it has now also caught Foreign Minister Maas: A319 the flight readiness is broken, Maas must remain with his delegation one more night in Bamako.

- Christoph Schult (@schultchristoph) February 28, 2019

Although an A340 is ready to fly, it will take until Friday morning before the crew is in Berlin to fly the Airbus to Mali. The first time they have to keep their official rest, but fortunately the pilot of the stalled A319 can also fly the A340.

The A319 of the aviation readiness was so far not as susceptible to breakdown as the larger brothers of the A340.

photo gallery


11 pictures

The German Pannenflieger: These politicians had to land

The Foreign Minister's visit to West Africa had started smoothly on Sunday afternoon from the military part of Berlin-Tegel Airport. The Airbus was initially scheduled to Freetown, Sierra Leone, and on Monday to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

more on the subject

Maas at the Bundeswehr in MaliAnfang before a second Afghanistan

From there, however, Maas had to take a charter plane from the Sahel Aviation Service on Wednesday to get to Gao. This is because of the runway of the Malian city: It is too short for an Airbus A319.

The private airline eventually brought the Foreign Minister and his delegation to Bamako. The Airbus was meanwhile parked for logistical reasons in Dhakar in Senegal. From there he flew to Bamako on Thursday - where the damage was detected in the evening.

planestream docu: Goes! With the "Pannenairbus" to Jordan

Video

planestream.de