The Brazilian air force on Tuesday said that an airplane carrying President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was returning to Brasília, safely landed at Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles Airport after circling for four hours due to a technical issue.
The air force confirmed that the aircraft, an Airbus A319, touched down after circling the Felipe Angeles Airport for nearly four hours.”We landed, and everyone is well,” Brazil’s press secretary, José Chrispiniano, told The Associated Press on a call.
The plane was carrying 16 people, including First Lady Rosângela Lula da Silva, Cabinet members, lawmakers, and crew. A source aboard the flight said that while Lula remained calm, he was concerned throughout the ordeal for the people onboard.
The plane encountered a technical problem shortly after departing from Mexico City, prompting a return to the airport, where Lula planned to board another plane later that day to continue his journey to Brasília.
Lieutenant Brigadier Marcelo Kanitz in a statement said that the “security procedures for the problem” were performed successfully, but pilots must “wait for the necessary fuel consumption so the airplane returns to the same airport it took off from.”
Lula would switch to another aircraft for his return to Brazil, Kanitz added.
According to the Brazilian air force’s statement, the Airbus A319 was still in the airspace above Mexico City on Tuesday afternoon. FlightAware, a flight tracking website, displayed a Brazilian air force Airbus A319, presumably carrying Lula, circling repeatedly over Felipe Angeles airport in the vicinity of Mexico City.
Lula was en route back to Brazil after attending the inauguration of Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, when an issue arose shortly after takeoff. He arrived in Mexico on Monday and held a meeting with outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In a separate incident in January, an airplane carrying Lula’s security personnel experienced technical difficulties during a trip to the northeastern Brazilian state of Paraiba, preventing the plane from taking off. Following the incident, the Brazilian presidency assured that the staff members were never in any danger.