The Brazilian Air Force confirmed the safe landing of the Airbus A319 at 19:16 local time (2:16 Moscow time) after four hours of flight over the airport. “We landed and everything is fine,” Brazilian presidential spokesman José Crispiniano told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The plane took off after the inauguration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, but encountered a technical problem shortly after taking off from Mexico City. The Brazilian Air Force said in a statement that the plane had to burn enough fuel to land safely. It landed almost five hours after takeoff.
Lula had planned to board another plane to return to Brazil later. In a statement, the Brazilian Air Force said that “the safety procedures to resolve the problem” were carried out successfully, but the pilots will have to “wait for the fuel consumption required for the aircraft to return to the same airport from which it departed.” .
