DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan  17, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken, who has travelled nearly incessantly since the Israel-Hamas war, was
forced to delay his return Wednesday from Switzerland due to airplane trouble.

Blinken, who spent a day and a half at the Davos mountain resort for the
World Economic Forum, was unable to leave Zurich due to what a US official
called "critical failure" of the airplane due to an oxygen leak.

A separate plane was sent to retrieve Blinken, who had flown from Davos to
Zurich by helicopter, with aides returning to Washington by commercial flight.

Plane trouble is not uncommon for the US secretary of state, who relies on
an ageing fleet of planes, as Congress is reluctant to fund new jets for
government travel.

Blinken has made four trips to the Middle East, often visiting multiple
countries a day, since the bloody October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, which
responded with a major military campaign in Gaza.