GREECE: AEROPLANE BROKEN DOWN, PRESIDENT STUCK IN VIETNAM
Athens, 17 October – A mishap for the president of Greece, Karolos Papoulias: he is stuck together with his staff in Vietnam, where he had been making an official visit lasting four days, as his official Airbus has broken down. This was reported by the national flagship airline, Olympic Airlines, which provides the presidential aeroplanes. What happened was that, due to a short circuit, the fire detection sensor in one of the four engines failed, reporting inexistent flames just as the Hellenic delegation was about to depart. At the site, no other aeroplanes could be found which were available to hire and so the Greek carrier had to send a Boeing 737 from Athens to Hanoi with technicians and spare parts. The length of the ‘rescue’ journey and the time necessary to carry out the repairs forced Papoulias to prolong his stay in the Asian country, experiencing unfortunately the inconvenience which usually only happens to mere mortals, and certainly not to heads of state.