Secretary Blinken Forced To Deplane After Boeing 737 Oxygen Leak

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was reportedly forced to change planes while attempting to fly back to the U.S. from Switzerland on Wednesday after his modified Boeing 737 jet suffered an oxygen leak.

Blinken was preparing to depart Zurich after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos when the malfunction was discovered on his C-40 military plane, according to multiple news outlets, citing press pool reports.

The incident resulted in an hours-long delay, though it did not cause any disruptions to Blinken’s meetings in Washington, a State Department spokesperson told NBC News.

A smaller jet was ultimately flown in from Brussels to complete Blinken’s return, Bloomberg reported. A spokesperson for Boeing referred HuffPost’s questions to the U.S. Air Force. A spokesperson there was not immediately able to offer comment.

It’s the latest high-profile failure of a Boeing aircraft in the last two weeks.

On Jan. 5, adoor plug blew out on a Boeing 737 Max 9 commercial plane while it was flying passengers over Oregon, leaving a gaping hole in part of the fuselage. After that mid-air scare, United Airlines said thatit found loose bolts and other “installation issues” in some of its Boeing 737 Max 9 planes.

The Federal Aviation Administration responded by grounding all Boeing 737 9 Max planes that have door plugs until they can be fully inspected.

Boeing advised airlines in late December to inspect its 737 Max jets for a potential loose bolt in the rudder control system, after one plane was found with a missing nut during routine maintenance and another had a nut that was not properly tightened.

Over the weekend, a different model plane, a Boeing 737-800 used by All Nippon Airways, was forced to return to its departure airport