- By Radha Basnet
- Sun, 07 Jan 2024 08:48 AM (IST)
- Source:REUTERS
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's official aircraft broke down for the second time since September last year. An aircraft malfunction on his most recent trip to the Caribbean forced the Canadian Armed Forces to dispatch a second plane carrying a repair crew to fix the issue.
On Friday, Canada said a jet was dispatched to Jamaica this week to fix a maintenance problem with the aircraft that transported Trudeau on a visit to the Caribbean, enabling him to fly back home.
"We can confirm two Royal Canadian Air Force CC-144 Challengers were in Jamaica supporting transport for the prime minister," a spokesperson for Canada's defence department said as quoted by news agency Reuters.
Before Trudeau's departure on Tuesday, an inspection uncovered the maintenance issue, the official said. A maintenance team and aircraft were sent to the island to restore the craft to service the next day.
It is the second recent instance of such an aircraft glitch; Trudeau's departure from India in September 2023 was delayed by a couple of days after a G20 summit. Trudeau, who was in New Delhi to attend the G20 Summit that was hosted from September 9 to 10, was stranded in India due to a technical snag in his aircraft.
During the G20 summit, Trudeau faced strong criticism from India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concerns about the continuous "anti-India activities" by extremists in Canada, emphasising that this is an issue of "strong concern".
