Greek PM's trip to Azerbaijan canceled after aircraft problem

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' planned trip to Azerbaijan was canceled on Monday evening, after a technical malfunction at the airplane which was carrying the official delegation to Baku. The Premier's aircraft returned to base a few minutes after take-off on Monday afternoon due to a still unclarified technical problem. After a thorough inspection and a test flight, experts deemed that for safety reasons the plane should stay grounded and since it was not possible to arrange a flight by another aircraft in time, the trip to Baku was cancelled, the prime ministers' office said. Samaras was to attend on Tuesday the signing ceremonies of two significant agreements for the ailing Greek economy. The first deal concerned the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline which will transport natural gas from Azerbaijan, through Greece and Albania to Italy, and then further into Western Europe. The second agreement concerned the sale of a controlling stake in Greek natural gas transmission network operator DESFA to Azeri state energy company Socar under Greece's privatization program. Samaras will most likely fly to Brussels for the upcoming EU summit later this week on a commercial airline due to Monday's technical failure.