Blinken Arrives Late to NATO Forum After Latest Plane Breakdown

(Bloomberg News/TNS) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s latest European tour hit a speed bump in Paris on Wednesday when his official plane broke down, necessitating an hours-long drive to Brussels.

A State Department spokesperson said the U.S. Air Force jet that had brought Blinken to France on Tuesday experienced a mechanical issue.

Blinken’s delegation drove from Paris to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters for a meeting of the alliance’s foreign ministers after the problem with his official aircraft, an older model of the Boeing Co. 737 that’s been modified for official government use. The trip to Brussels is about 190 miles. 

He spent Tuesday meeting with French officials, touting the allies’ support for Ukraine and the need to prevent a widening of the Israel-Hamas war.

The breakdown was the latest in a series that included a delay in Zurich after Blinken’s appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

The top U.S. diplomat is not alone in his travel woes: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was stranded in India in September following the Group of 20 summit after his aircraft experienced a mechanical fault, and the German government fast-tracked the upgrade of its fleet to include the Airbus A350 flagship after a series of incidents involving older aircraft.