Angela Merkel was aboard the plane bound for Buenos Aires
German authorities have ordered a criminal investigation into the serious damage caused yesterday by the government plane "Konrad Adenauer" on which Angela Merkel was flying to Buenos Aires, according to a publication of the German newspaper "Rheinische Post". The report, citing sources in the German security services, said all possibilities were being considered.
The damage to the aircraft was very serious: An hour after taking off from Berlin, the entire ground communication system was shut down on the Air Force A340. Such an incident is considered dangerous and an emergency signal is given to the air force. Therefore, the pilots immediately decided to stop the flight to Argentina. At the time, the plane was in Dutch airspace. Only with the help of a satellite phone, the crew of the government aircraft managed to contact the flight control center and request an emergency landing at Cologne-Bonn airport. Such a failure of the communication system, ensured by various replacement systems, is extremely rare. The cause of the damage was not determined until late Thursday night, Bundeswehr sources said.
Technischer Defekt or Merkels Flugzeug. Mehrere Feuerwehr-Fahrzeuge erwarten den Airbus nach harter Landung in Köln. #dpaReporter pic.twitter.com/SfF4vhOmqE- Jörg Blank (@JMaxBlank) November 29, 2018
When the A340 finally arrived in Cologne, another problem arose: As the airport was being rebuilt, only the smaller of the runways was available at the time. Therefore, the long-haul aircraft had to slow down very quickly. Because he had consumed some kerosene from Berlin and could not dump the fuel approaching Cologne, the landing problem was still serious. The result: the braking system overheated - and the fire department had to intervene precautionarily.
According to Spiegel, the overall situation was so serious that Defense Minister Ursula von der Lagen Ursula was notified immediately after the radio system was damaged. For several hours he tried, among other things, to find another plane for the Chancellor among the European companies. However, no airlines with transatlantic aircraft with VIP equipment in the EU were found.
Merkel spent the night at a hotel in Bonn. There he stated about the incident: "I can say after the events, there was a serious problem. Fortunately, there was an excellent crew and an experienced commander. " Chancellor Angela Merkel will miss the start of the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, as she is leaving this morning by an Air Force plane from Cologne to Madrid. From there it will depart with a scheduled Iberia flight to the Argentine capital.
Die Welt: 20 minutes after takeoff, pilot sends emergency code 7600
The pilot of the aircraft sent the emergency code 7600, which states that the communication systems were out of order.
For ten years, Lufthansa's Airbus A340-30 carried passengers, then it was converted into a government aircraft two years ago. But the Longbus aircraft with the code 16 + 01 "Konrad Adenauer" always causes damage.
In mid-October, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Soltz could not return from a meeting of the IMF in Bali because rodents had eaten the plane's electrical cables.
Now the governor has sent the code 7600 - one of the four special identification codes that can be transmitted via a transmitter, ie with a radio signal, from the cockpit crew to the air traffic controllers.
For example, the code 7500 can be used to refer to an aircraft hijacking without specifically mentioning it on the radio frequency. Code 7600 from Airbus is often described by pilots as "76 - I need my radio" or "76 - I do not hear anything". So it is a call for help from the cockpit that there is no safe contact with the airline.
These emergency codes also appear on some Internet platforms that allow airplanes to follow their route. Therefore, the emergency signal was quickly observed about 20 minutes after takeoff from Berlin.
Air Force: "There is no indication of external influence so far"
"So far there is no indication of external influence on the technical damage caused yesterday by the government plane in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel was riding," the German Focus magazine quoted German Air Force spokesman as saying.
"So far there is no evidence or even evidence of criminal activity," an Air Force spokesman told the German magazine.
He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture and that his confession had been obtained through torture.