Backup plane on its way to pick up PM Trudeau and Canadian delegation stranded in India

A second Polaris plane is on its way to India where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian G20 delegation are stranded after a 'technical issue' with the original plane was discovered shortly before departure.

A second Polaris plane is on its way to India where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian G20 delegation are stranded after a “technical issue” with the original plane was discovered shortly before departure.

The Prime Minister’s Office says a backup Airbus, CFC002, has left Trenton and is heading to India to pick up the delegation. Publicly available flight tracking software shows the Airbus left CFB Trenton at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday and stopped over in England early Monday morning. 

“Currently CFC002 is on route. We are working towards a departure tomorrow morning, but recognize the situation is fluid,” the prime minister’s Press Secretary Mohammad Hussain said in a statement.  

The prime minister was set to depart New Delhi Sunday night following the G20 summit. However, during the pre-flight checks, Canadian Armed Forces grounded the CFC001 plane due to a technical issue that could not be fixed overnight. 

The Department of National Defence (DND) says the maintenance problem involves a component that will have to be replaced. 

“The safety of all passengers is critical to the RCAF and pre-flight safety checks are a regular part of all of our flight protocols,” the department wrote in a statement. “The discovery of this issue is evidence that these protocols are effective.”

This isn’t the first time the Airbus has caused problems for Trudeau and his delegation.