Plane carrying Brazil president lands in Mexico after technical issue

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BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) -The plane transporting Brazil’s president landed in Mexico City on Tuesday night, the Brazilian Air Force said, after the aircraft was forced to circle the area for hours due to an undisclosed technical problem.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made an official visit to Mexico to attend President Claudia Sheinbaum’s inauguration earlier in the day. He was expected to return to Brasilia hours after the ceremony.

The plane encountered a “technical” issue after departing the Mexican capital, the Air Force said in a statement.

The problem required the aircraft to burn off fuel in order to land safely at the same airport, the Air Force had said in an earlier statement.

The plane remained in Mexican airspace for about five hours, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

Brazil’s presidential airplane is a 20-year-old Airbus A319 purchased by Lula in 2004 during his first term, which was nicknamed “Aerolula” and has since also transported former Presidents Dilma Rousseff, Michel Temer and Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula was expected to change aircraft in Mexico City before returning to Brazil.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito in Brasilia; Gabriel Araujo and Andre Romani in Sao Paulo; Editing by David Alire Garcia, Sarah Morland and Jacqueline Wong)