DAVOS, Switzerland - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has travelled nearly incessantly since the Israel-Hamas war, was forced to delay his return from Switzerland on Jan 17 due to aeroplane trouble.

Mr 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 plane due to an oxygen leak.

A separate plane was sent to retrieve Mr 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.

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