Germany’s foreign minister had to wait for hours in Abu Dhabi after a technical problem on her government plane forced it to return to the airport rather than continue to Australia.

Annalena Baerbock had been due to arrive in Canberra on Monday night, to start her visit to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. But her German air force Airbus A340 had to return to Abu Dhabi after a refueling stop because of “a mechanical problem with the landing flaps,” ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The pilot noticed the problem minutes after the plane took off from Abu Dhabi, and landed it again safely two hours later, after dumping some 80 tons of fuel, German news agency dpa reported.