Germany’s Merkel to miss G20 opening

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plane, headed for the G20 summit in Argentina, made an emergency landing in Cologne on Thursday due to a technical problem. She will miss the opening of the summit, her spokeswoman said.

“Following a technical problem, the official plane landed safely in Cologne,” the Chancellory had said, without indicating when she could leave again. “We will not be proceeding today,” Angela Merkel’s spokesperson later told news agency AFP.

The Airbus A340-300, named Konrad Adenauer after Germany’s first post war chancellor, was met on the tarmac by fire engines, the German news agency DPA said, adding that Merkel was waiting for a replacement plane to taker her to Buenos Aires.

Merkel, who had planned bilateral meetings with the presidents of the United States, China, Russia and India, was unlikely to arrive in Buenos Aires until Friday evening, German government sources said. It was not immediately clear which bilateral meetings would have to be rescheduled.

Scholz was grounded on the same A340 aircraft last month after an International Monetary Fund meeting in Indonesia, according to German media reports. They said the issue involved damage caused by rodents.