By Enyichukwu Enemanna
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon was forced to take a commercial flight to Japan after his Air Force plane broke down while refuelling in Papua New Guinea, his office said Monday.
The PM late Sunday boarded a scheduled flight from Port Moresby to Tokyo via Hong Kong, arising from a technical issue with the New Zealand Defence Force Boeing 757 aircraft which he had been flying on.
According to a Defence spokesperson, the issue with the flight the PM flies on has to do with a problem with the command module, for a small flap on the wing, which implies that the aircraft could not fly as high or as fast as normal, affecting its range.
It was detected while the plane was on the ground in Papua New Guinea.
A delegation of business leaders and journalists accompanying Luxon had to wait until Monday to fly on the air force 757 to Brisbane and then catch a commercial flight to Tokyo, the spokesperson said.
Luxon is expected to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during his four-day visit.
In March, the New Zealand leader had to fly commercial to Australia for meetings with Southeast Asian leaders after a problem with the landing gear grounded his defence force plane while still on the tarmac in Wellington.
Back in Nigeria, the once largest economy in West Africa, President Bola Tinubu was also forced to use a chartered private aircraft during his recent official trips to the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
This however attracted the attention of the parliament, fearing that this puts the security of the President at risk and doesn’t speak well of the country to the international community.
Reports has emerged that a presidential jet developed some faults while the President was in the Netherlands in April.
Heritage Times HT recalls that recently, a faulty presidential jet stopped Vice President Kashim Shettima from attending the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit hosted by the Corporate Council on Africa, raising concerns.
In response to this, the parliament has recommended the purchase of two flights for the President and his Vice, attracting condemnation from opposition that has described the plan as insensitive, amidst high rate of poverty in the country.
