President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated arrival at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was abruptly delayed Tuesday night when Air Force One was forced to turn back to Joint Base Andrews shortly after takeoff due to a minor electrical issue. 

The White House confirmed that the aircraft — one of the presidential Boeing 747s that have served for decades — experienced a brief lights outage in the press cabin and other electrical anomalies soon after departing for Switzerland. Out of an “abundance of caution,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, the crew elected to return to base, with no injuries reported. 

After landing safely just after 11 p.m. EST, President Trump and his entourage transferred to a secondary aircraft — typically a Boeing 757 (Air Force C-32) — and resumed the journey to Davos, arriving more than two hours later than scheduled. 

The glitch comes at a critical moment in global affairs, as Trump is expected to deliver a keynote address focused on international security, economic policy, and geopolitical tensions, especially surrounding his controversial push to acquire Greenland. European leaders and global business figures gathered at the forum have expressed mixed reactions to his agenda. 

This event also reignites questions about the aging presidential fleet, which has faced repeated maintenance challenges. Leavitt light-heartedly noted that a newer Boeing 747-8 jet — a recent gift from Qatar undergoing retrofit — might have seemed particularly appealing after Tuesday’s incident.

Sources: PBS Newsletter, Reuters, Al Jazeera, AP News