A spokesman for the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, said on Tuesday it would decommission two aircraft as soon as possible, rather than by the end of 2024. as originally planned after one of them experienced mechanical problems twice in the past 24 hours, forcing Secretary of State Analena Burbock to cancel her planned tour of Pacific countries, the Washington Post reported.

German Foreign Minister Analena Burbock was forced on Tuesday to cancel a foreign policy trip to the Pacific region after two failed attempts to fly from the United Arab Emirates to Australia on a government plane.

This development comes after a series of trips by German officials that presented problems with “aging” government aircraft.

The 23-year-old Airbus A340, named “Konrad Adenauer” after West Germany’s first chancellor, landed in Abu Dhabi for refueling on Monday but turned back shortly after takeoff due to a wing malfunction.

After a successful test flight, the Foreign Secretary made a second attempt to fly to Sydney in the early hours of Tuesday, but the plane turned back after the captain informed passengers that the previous technical problem had reoccurred. The aircraft ended up circling for two hours while dropping 80 tons of jet fuel.