Most people who have taken a trip in the last year have had to deal with some kind of delay or setback.
Between numerous weather events and industry-wide understaffing following the pandemic, delays and cancelations have become more common. One analysis of flight data shows that while only 5.2% of all flights were delayed in 2018, that number rose to 7.1% in 2023. Supply chain problems also mean that a mechanical problem could keep a plane grounded while waiting for a new part for longer.
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While important political figures are usually better-protected against everyday delays, they occasionally have to take their losses and wait it out like the rest of us.
Meanwhile, @JustinTrudeau faces aircraft issue and will stay put in India.
— Snehesh Alex Philip (@sneheshphilip) September 10, 2023
Upon our departure for the airport, we were made aware by the Canadian Armed Forces that CFC001 was experiencing technical issues. These issues are not fixable overnight, our delegation will be staying… pic.twitter.com/TmxBlTYikC
'Our delegation will be staying in India until alternate arrangements are made,' Canada's PM says
At the end of the G20 conference on Sept. 10, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was preparing to go back home to Canada when he was told that the CC-150 Polaris plane that was being used to transport the delegation to and from India had a mechanical issue that "could not be fixed overnight."
Unlike the U.S. President's Air Force One, the plane used by Canada's head of government does not go under a single name. The country's top diplomats use five CC-150 Polaris planes belonging to the Royal Canadian Air Force.
"Upon our departure for the airport, we were made aware by the Canadian Armed Forces that CFC001 was experiencing technical issues," Trudeau's office said in a media statement. "These issues are not fixable overnight, our delegation will be staying in India until alternate arrangements are made."
Trudeau had landed in India for the gathering of G20 countries on Sept. 8 and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over everything from foreign interference in Canadian elections to Sikh protests in Canada that Modi classified as having "extremist elements."
Here are all the times Trudeau's plane has broken down before
While the Canadian delegation's plane was scheduled to depart at 8 p.m. on Sept. 10, the mechanical issue kept them in India overnight. As of Monday morning, they were still waiting to leave India as the issue turned out to be more extensive than mechanics initially thought and a second government plane was sent over to India.
A CFC002 Airbus (EADSF) -) has been dispatched from Canada and is on the way to India after a stopover in England.
"We are working towards a departure tomorrow morning, but recognize the situation is fluid," Trudeau's Press Secretary Mohammad Hussain said in a statement.
This is not the first time that Canada's head of government has run into plane trouble while on diplomatic missions aboard. In 2016, a plane that had taken off to Brussels for the signing of a free-trade agreement between Belgium and Canada had to turn back around to Ottawa with the PM due to a mechanical issue.
In 2019, a back-up plane had to be sent to get Trudeau to a NATO summit after the CC-150 Polaris he was supposed to be on suffered "significant structural damage to the nose and right engine cowling."
This isn't even the first time the PM has suffered plane trouble on India trips. In 2018, Trudeau was late for another visit to Modi after a mechanical issue on one of the planes was discovered during a refueling stop in Rome.
