|
Problem hits Cheney's plane
25/02/2007 07:35 - (SA)
Washington - US vice president Dick Cheney's plane had a small mechanical problem on Sunday but there were no safety concerns and it would make a planned refuelling stop in Singapore, the White House said.
White House spokesperson Emily Lawrimore said there was a problem with a generator on the plane, which left Sydney's international airport about 09:00 on Sunday (22:00 GMT Saturday), but it posed no safety issues and the aircraft was fine.
A flight from Sydney to Singapore takes about seven hours.
Cheney had been visiting Australia as part of a trip to thank Washington's Iraq war allies Japan and Australia.
He was returning to the United States on Sunday. The refuelling stop in Singapore was already scheduled, the White House said.
"Nobody is scheduled to get off the plane. Nobody is scheduled to get on the plane," a source in Singapore, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard earlier told reporters in Sydney: "I am not aware of the full circumstances and I have not been told except that it has been diverted."
A Reuters photographer at Sydney airport said Air Force 2 had proceeded towards the runway as normal and revved its engines before the engines appeared to decelerate.
A mobile stairway was sent out to the plane but a door in the plane opened and an unidentified figure appeared in the hatchway and waved the stairway off, the Reuters photographer said.
The door was then closed and the plane proceeded to the runway and took off.
Cheney arrived in Sydney late on Thursday. Anti-war protesters who accuse him of being one of the main architects of the unpopular Iraq war scuffled briefly with police on Thursday and Friday.
A total of 11 people were arrested but his visit was otherwise uneventful.
Cheney's health has also been a concern in the past, with the vice president having a history of heart trouble.
(Additional reporting by Will Burgess and Paul Tait in Sydney; and Koh Gui Qing in Singapore)
|
News
