Repeat plane glitch risked stranding Justin Trudeau again
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A repeat glitch with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s official aircraft risked stranding him overseas for the second time in four months.
The Canadian Armed Forces said that they were forced to send a second plane to Jamaica after Mr Trudeau’s jet broke down during his recent visit to the Caribbean country, with a repair team dispatched to address the issue.
Mr Trudeau, who was on the Caribbean island for a family holiday, is required to travel on a military plane for security reasons.
The incident came after an earlier fault with the Canadian premier’s aircraft delayed his departure from a G20 summit in India in September 2023 by two days.
Pre-flight checks revealed a part on the CC-150 Polaris was defective and needed to be replaced.
Both planes were relatively new acquisitions by the Canadian Armed Forces.
“We can confirm two Royal Canadian Air Force CC-144 Challengers were in Jamaica supporting transport for the prime minister,” a spokesman for Canada’s defence department said.
Trudeau returns on original plane
An inspection uncovered the maintenance issue on Tuesday, before Mr Trudeau’s was due to fly back to Canada, the spokesman added.
A maintenance team and aircraft were sent to the island to restore the craft to service the next day.
Mr Trudeau, 52, was able to return on the original plane, the spokesman said.
In 2019, Mr Trudeau was also forced to use a backup plane to attend a Nato summit in London after the one he had been originally scheduled to travel on was damaged in a hangar accident.
Also that year, during his re-election campaign, a chartered Boeing plane he was due to fly on was grounded after a bus ferrying journalists collided with the aircraft’s wing.
Mr Trudeau is currently serving his third term as prime minister, having first been elected in 2015.
By the time the next election is due in 2025, he will have been in power for 10 years, and polls indicate Canadians could be in the mood for a change.
Most opinion polls currently show Mr Trudeau significantly trailing his newest rival, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
No Canadian prime minister since Wilfrid Laurier in 1908 has won four consecutive elections.
