Plane issues force German FM to cancel Pacific trip

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has cancelled her week-long visit to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji due to plane issues.

Baerbock's Australia-bound plane had to turn around shortly after taking off from Abu Dhabi for the second time in two days as her government plane continued to experience mechanical problems.

A commercial flight to the Australian city of Sydney was planned, but the trip was canned at short notice.

The cancellation was "more than annoying," Baerbock wrote on the online platform X, which was previously known as Twitter.

"We have tried everything: unfortunately it is logistically impossible to continue my Indo-Pacific trip without the defective plane."

The Pacific region would "decisively shape the #worldorder of the 21st century," Baerbock posted.

"That is why substantive and personal exchange is so important."

Baerbock was first stranded in Abu Dhabi early on Monday morning on her way to Australia. After a planned refuelling stopover, a mechanical issue meant her government plane had to return to the United Arab Emirates.

A second attempt to set off failed 15 minutes after taking off at 1 am on Tuesday (2100 GMT Monday). The A340-300 Airbus carrying the minister turned back again and landed in Abu Dhabi at 2:57 am.

The captain told passengers that the plane was experiencing the same problems with the wing flaps as on Monday, which prevented the aircraft reaching its normal cruising altitude and speed.

"If you look at the monitors, you will recognize the same flight behaviour as yesterday. We're circling right now. We unfortunately had the same problem we had yesterday happen again," the captain said during the flight, according to a dpa reporter on board.

"The wing flaps can no longer be retracted. They have jammed again," the pilot said. "We have spoken to test pilots from Lufthansa. This error has never been encountered before," he said.

The captain said that in his many years of flying he had never encountered this problem.

He added that it was unlikely that the trip to Australia would be attempted again on the same aircraft, as the cause of the problem was still a mystery.

"Sometimes you really are cursed," said Baerbock in an initial reaction to the second aborted flight.

During her inaugural visit to Australia, Baerbock had planned to visit both Canberra and Sydney, where she was supposed to meet Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

Baerbock was also meant to take part in a ceremony for the return of cultural objects to representatives of the Indigenous Kaurna people at an institute for Aboriginal studies.

She was also due to attend the second semi-final of the women's World Cup in Sydney, before heading to New Zealand to meet her counterpart Nanaia Mahuta in Auckland.

At the end of the trip, Baerbock had planned to meet Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in Suva, the capital of Fiji. She also wanted to open a German embassy there.

This is not the first time Baerbock has run into problems with a German government jet, having been stranded in Qatar due to a flat tyre in mid-May.