Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now scheduled to depart from New Delhi sometime on Tuesday afternoon as his backup flight is scheduled to reach India during the wee hours of Tuesday. Trudeau’s official plane was grounded shortly before the delegation’s departure from the G20 Summit in New Delhi on Sunday.
Sources say the “earliest” departure for the Prime Minister and the Canadian delegation is late Tuesday afternoon.
During pre-flight checks, the Canadian Armed Forces grounded the CFC001 plane due to a technical issue that could not be fixed overnight. According to international new agencies, the Canada Department of National Defence (DND) said the maintenance problem involves a component that will have to be replaced.
Sources say that a technician with the part needed to fix the grounded plane is on a commercial flight to India on Tuesday morning.
Canada’s CTV News reported that the prime minister and his delegation are stranded in Delhi due to a technical issue with the aircraft and that they are likely to depart on Tuesday morning. “Upon our departure for the airport, we were made aware by the Canadian Armed Forces that CFC001 was experiencing technical issues,” the channel quoted the statement from the prime minister’s office as saying.
“These issues are not fixable overnight, our delegation will be staying in India until alternate arrangements are made,” CTV News channel had said quoting a statement from Trudeau’s office.
The CFC002 Polaris aircraft departed CFB Trenton for India on Sunday night via London. The Canada government’s smaller Challenger jet is also in London and is able to fly to India if necessary. As per news agencies, it is not the first time the Airbus has caused problems for Trudeau and his delegation.
This is the latest issue with the 1980s-era aircraft, which has had a host of mechanical problems over the years.