US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has faced travel disruptions after his plane experienced a “critical failure” attributed to an oxygen leak while departing from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The incident occurred as Blinken was set to return to the United States, with a replacement aircraft dispatched to retrieve the Secretary of State while his aides returned to Washington on a commercial flight.
Antony Blinken has been actively traveling to various countries since the commencement of the Israel-Gaza conflict in October. Fortunately, the mechanical issue arose at the conclusion of his trip and did not impact the overall travel schedule, clarified Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesperson, during a Wednesday briefing.
Miller stated, “There was a mechanical issue with his plane. The Air Force has a replacement plane inbound. We expect to be back still tonight but several hours later than originally planned.”
The Secretary of State and his team had boarded the plane in Zurich, only to disembark after the identification of the oxygen leak. According to US media reports, Blinken had been scheduled to return to the US on a Boeing 737.
Mechanical problems with US Air Force passenger planes have raised concerns on prior State Department trips. During Blinken’s trip to China last summer, aides took precautionary measures by providing reporters with visas for a potential refueling stop in Azerbaijan, anticipating any maintenance-related grounding of the aircraft.
