OAN’s Abril Elfi
12:44 PM – Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Secretary of State Antony Blinken found himself momentarily stuck in Davos, Switzerland, after a technical malfunction issue affected his plane and delayed his scheduled flight.
On Wednesday, Blinken was stranded in Davos after the aircraft he was set to travel in had experienced a “critical failure” related to an oxygen leak.
According to a member of his traveling press pool, another plane was then prompted to pick him up.
Blinken had originally flown to Davos for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on Monday in a helicopter and was scheduled to fly back to Washington, D.C., in a plane on Wednesday.
Spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force, Rose Riley, stated that the United States diplomat was supposed to fly back on the C-40, an Air Force aircraft assigned to Joint Base Andrews.
Blinken had taken the helicopter from the WEF conference to Zurich, where he later began boarding his plane until he was told about the malfunctions and that he would not be able to fly back as quickly as planned.
Blinken then reportedly instructed the accompanying press members and his assistants to make their own travel arrangements for a commercial flight back to Washington.
The WEF announced that this year’s program was meant to “rebuild trust” and present a return to the fundamentals of candid and fruitful communication between leaders in business, civil society, and policymakers.
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