Government plane grounded for a month: Gray Heron has disrupted the travel plans of federal councilors

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Saturday, February 24, 2024, 11:20 am in Lugano: The Federal Council’s Falcon 900 plane wants to take off towards Bern-Belp after Foreign Minister and frequent flyer Ignazio Cassis (62) disembarked. But during the take-off phase a serious incident occurs: a blue heron flies into the right wing and puts the state plane out of action.

The Federal Air Transport Service (LTDB) crew is unharmed, but no one is injured except the poor bird. But the Falcon 900 will have to remain grounded for weeks. The reason: there are no spare parts for a quick repair.

The military, which is responsible for the LTDB, confirmed what happened. When asked by Blick, spokesperson Mathias Volken said: “Bird strikes are events that can occur at any time and anywhere in aviation, despite permanent precautions.”

Volken explains the problems with repairs as bottlenecks in the supply chain and the availability of spare parts. “Because the Falcon 900 is no longer produced, the purchase of spare parts increasingly requires extra effort.”

It wasn’t until this week, almost a month after the Great Blue Heron incident, that the replacement parts were finally purchased and installed. The Federal Council’s device has been operational again since Friday evening.

Rented a replacement aircraft

The incident had unpleasant consequences for some members of the state government. The magistrates do have a second aircraft, the Cessna 560. However, this was not sufficient to carry out all business trips as planned.

Two members of the Federal Council were forced to make a new appointment: Federal President Viola Amherd (61) had to travel to New York on March 8 on a scheduled flight instead of on a state plane to participate in a meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. And for the trip of Ignazio Cassis (62) to Africa, which took the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya in mid-March, a private jet even had to be rented. “Scheduled flights were not possible on the planned routes and the planned program with multiple destinations,” Volken explains.

Despite the inconvenience, the incident was not only annoying for those responsible.

The reason: last summer, the Federal Council decided to purchase a Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft as the Federal Council’s new jet. Cost: $109 million. The decision caused much criticism. Army spokesman Volken therefore emphasizes that the current aircraft, built in 2002 (Cessna 560) and 2008 (Falcon 900), no longer meet the “latest state of the art”. “This has an increasingly negative impact on availability – due to increased maintenance work and repairs – safety and environmental friendliness.”

The new aircraft will therefore bring at least part of the LTDB’s state aircraft fleet up to date with the latest technology in safety, efficiency and performance.

The argument sounds good, but there is a small catch: the Bombardier Global 7500 will replace the ‘wrong’ aircraft of the Federal Council with the Cessna 560. The Falcon 900, which was taken out of service by the Gray Heron, will after Continue to operate as a government aircraft until 2025. Due to the tense financial situation of the federal budget, the replacement of the aircraft will not be explored until a later date.

Source:Blick