The Austrian government’s plans to repatriate Austrians who want to leave Israel amid the flare-up of violence have been scrapped at the last minute after the only available C-130 Hercules was grounded due to a technical problem.

Yesterday, Tuesday, Vienna announced that it would send a C-130 transport aircraft to Israel that would perform special flights to transport Austrians to Cyprus. The Austrian government has announced the replacement of aging aircraft of this type, which date back to the 1960s.

Shortly before takeoff in the morning, smoke in the passenger cabin resulted in the flight being aborted and the C-130 being moved to a maintenance hangar.

A few hours later, the Austrian Foreign Ministry announced that it had secured 100 seats on this evening’s Israeli Israir flight to Larnaca.

The incident raised questions about the decision to send a military aircraft despite commercial flights being available, and tarnished the image of Austria’s armed forces.

Austrian Defense Ministry spokesman Michael Bauer wrote in a post on the X platform (formerly Twitter): “Black day for the armed forces: We could not help our compatriots.”

Asked why the transport aircraft was not replaced with one of the other two C-130s, Bauer told the Puls 24 television network: “Both Hercules are undergoing maintenance – one until March and the other until December.”

Defense spending has not been among the priorities of governments in Austria in recent years, and some military officials argue that the armed forces are not adequately equipped to defend the country in the event of an attack.

The conservative government has pledged to take the necessary measures to modernize Austria’s armed forces.