Justin Trudeau leaves India after 36-hour delay: Past instances when Canadian PM’s plane faced snag

This is not the first time that the Canadian PM’s official aircraft, an Airbus A 310-300, has suffered a technical snag.

According to an Indian Express report, in the early 1990s, the CC 150 Polaris aircraft earned the nickname, the ‘Flying Taj Mahal’. This name was coined by Canada's opposition leader at the time, Jean Chrétien. He gave it this moniker after the then-Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, had the aircraft's interiors lavishly upgraded.

Interestingly, Chrétien later became the Prime Minister and he also utilised the same aircraft for official trips. However, during his tenure, he opted for a more modest interior design, toning down the lavish upgrades that had been previously done.

Before becoming the VIP plane, it was initially part of a batch of five aircraft brought into commercial service by an airline firm in 1987-88. Maintenance issues with the aircraft have become increasingly common, and notably, all incidents have occurred during Trudeau's tenure as Prime Minister.

In 2016, Trudeau was forced to return to Ottawa, the capital of Canada, just 30 minutes after take-off due to a glitch in the aircraft's flaps. He was flying to Brussels to sign a free trade deal with the European Union.

In 2018, during Trudeau's trip to India, the Flying Taj Mahal encountered another snag in Russia while refuelling. This issue stemmed from a damaged sensor, extending the fuel refilling stop from the usual 1.5 hours to approximately three hours.

In 2019, the VIP aircraft faced severe damage when it rolled into the back wall of a hangar while being towed on the ground at a Canadian airbase. The incident left the aircraft's nose and right engine cowling damaged.

Canada has taken steps to address these recurring issues by acquiring two used 2015-manufactured Airbus A330 aircraft from Kuwait Airways. However, immediate upgrades to retrofit these aircraft with luxurious cabins for the Prime Minister are not expected. Canadian media has speculated that it could take up to two years for these upgrades to be completed.