U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was left stranded in Davos after his preparations to return home on Wednesday, January 17, were suddenly interrupted by a serious problem with the Boeing aircraft he was supposed to travel – report Bloomberg.
Blinken and his group were told that the aircraft had been ruled dangerous to fly after taking helicopters from Davos to Zurich and boarded the altered Boeing Co. 737. An oxygen leak that had previously been found was unfixable.
The chief US envoy had left for Davos on Monday for the yearly World Economic Forum and was due to return to Washington on Wednesday. The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting offers policymakers, business professionals, and thought leaders a forum to discuss and share viewpoints on important global issues.
Following their meetings in Davos, Blinken and company decided to switch from helicopters to a specially-ordered Boeing 737 for their return flight home to the United States. But when they received the unsettling news that the aircraft had been declared dangerous for takeoff, their vacation plans came to an abrupt end.
How did Antony Blinken fly back to US?
“A smaller jet was being flown to Zurich from Brussels to ferry home the top US diplomat,” the report added. He instructed the members of the press accompanying him and his assistants to arrange for a commercial flight return to Washington.
Aircraft malfunctions are not unusual, but this particular one comes at a bad moment for Boeing. Regulators grounded a large number of the company’s 737 Max 9 planes in response to an accident involving an Alaska Airlines flight on January 5, according to Bloomberg.
An identical event happened in September
Following a Group of 20 meeting in New Delhi in September of last year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau became stranded in India due to a technical issue with his aircraft.
A series of malfunctions on long flights have also affected Germany’s fleet of old government aircraft, leading to an early retirement of models such as the Airbus A340 and an acquisition of more modern A350 aircraft.
