US Secretary of State Blinken's plane suffers mechanical failure

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was in the Swiss town of Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), was unable to fly to Washington DC, the capital of the US, from Zurich—where he had arrived by helicopter following his meetings—due to a critical failure on his aircraft.

After it was reported that an oxygen leak previously detected on the Boeing 737 aircraft intended to carry Blinken and his team could not be repaired and that the plane was not safe for flight, a private jet was dispatched from Brussels, the capital of Belgium, for Blinken.

Many members of Blinken's team were forced to travel to Washington DC on a commercial flight.

CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER WAS ALSO STRANDED

Last September, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was stranded in New Delhi, India, following the G20 Summit held in the Indian capital, due to a mechanical failure on his plane.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also made an emergency landing in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, during her tour of Oceania last August due to a technical failure on her plane, and was stranded in Doha, the capital of Qatar, last May due to an issue with the tires of the aircraft she was traveling on.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel also missed the opening ceremony of the 2018 G20 Summit in Argentina due to a "serious failure" that forced the government plane carrying her to make an emergency landing.