Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will be late returning to Spain from his trip to Togo after the plane in which he was travelling had to abort take-off due to a technical fault. Twice.
The Prime Minister was due to leave Lomé airport at 21:15 local time (23:15 Spanish time) on board a Falcon belonging to the Spanish Air Force. A fault with the speedometer, believed to be an accumulation of insects in one of the ducts, caused the first take-off attempt to be aborted.
Then, and apparently unknown to the crew of the plane, the tyres on the plane had deflated due to the excessive temperatures and a second take-off attempt also had to be aborted.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero will now return to Spain on another Falcon (good job they took two!) but will be late for his scheduled appearance in Congress today.