NEW DELHI: The aircraft that was to fly Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his delegation back home from the G20 summit in Delhi developed a snag just before departure Sunday night, reports Saurabh Sinha.
“Upon our departure for the airport, we were made aware by the Canadian Armed Forces that CFC001 was experiencing technical issues. These issues are not fixable overnight, our delegation will be staying in India until alternative arrangements are made,” the Canadian Prime Minister’s office told TOI. A Canadian high commission official said the next travel plan would be shared once finalised.
The wide-body Airbus A310 had flown Trudeau to Delhi from Singapore on September 8 and was to leave for Ottawa via Rome on Sunday when the glitch was detected. Coincidentally, in the summer of 2018, the aircraft had developed a snag when Trudeau was to leave for Delhi, causing a delay then too. There have been other instances of problems in the ageing aircraft, which the Canadian government is in the process of replacing.
This is not the only case of a snag in old VVIP planes. Last month, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock had to cancel her trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji after her 23-year-old Airbus A340 suffered a snag in Abu Dhabi.
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