The aircraft with which President Nicusor Dan was to return from France cannot take off from Paris because the airport runway is covered with snow.
The aircraft with which President Nicusor Dan is going to return to the country was prepared for takeoff, Wednesday morning, at the Paris airport, but it cannot leave because the runway is covered with snow. The French authorities are making efforts to remove it, but the strong wind is blowing it away, News writes.
“Last night we decided not to leave because we would have arrived at 3-4 at night and it wouldn’t have been good. And now it’s an unusual situation for France, usually it doesn’t snow here, it snowed, the runway has to be cleared. We’re waiting until it clears“, said Nicusor Dan, who had to get off the plane and mentioned that he drank a hot tea at the airport.
The president also stated that, previously, due to a technical problem with the Spartan aircraft, he stayed overnight in Germany.
“I’ve lost planes before, but I don’t remember being stuck. I also had a technical incident with the Spartan in Germany and I stayed overnight like that.” mentioned Nicuşor Dan.
He was asked if it is an inconvenience that there is no presidential plane.
“At some point we must have a presidential plane and not only for the president, but also for the ministers who go on delegations when there are important things, because this plane does much more than a normal plane and we have no communications inside, the moment we are inside we are isolated”, Nicusor explained.
The president added that there is no question of purchasing a presidential aircraft in 2026.
For now, the takeoff of the Spartan aircraft has been delayed for several tens of minutes. Also, the aircraft could not return to the country even during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday because the fog in Bucharest prevented landing in the Capital.
Nicusor Dan was present on Tuesday at the summit of the Coalition of the Will, in Paris, where the representatives of 35 states that support Ukraine gathered.
Local authorities in France have issued an orange code of heavy snow and ice for January 7.
According to the warning sent by the MAE, the following regions will be affected: Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, Centre-Val-de-Loire, Poitou-Charentes, Limousin, Vendée, Maine-et-Loire, Eure-et-Loir, Orne, Haute-Normandie, Allier, western Burgundy and western Champagne-Ardennes.
Important disruptions to urban and interurban road transport, rail and air traffic are expected.
“Based on this, approximately 40% of flights scheduled between 9:00 and 14:00 at Charles de Gaulle airport and 25% of flights scheduled between 6:00 and 14:00 at Orly airport will be affected”, submitted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
