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German Chancellor Angela Merkel's plane headed to the G20 summit in Argentina made an emergency landing in Germany due to a technical problem. The Airbus A340 government aircraft carrying Merkel and the German delegation to Buenos Aires was forced to land shortly after taking off from Berlin on Thursday, The Daily Mail informed.

The plane turned around over the Netherlands about an hour into the 15-hour flight before landing in Cologne.

Merkel and German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz will resume their travel to Buenos Aires early on Friday, but the long flight time means they will arrive after world leaders start their discussions.

The captain told passengers aboard the plane he decided to switch aircraft at the Cologne-Bonn airport in northwestern Germany after the 'malfunction of several electronic systems.'  He said there had been no security risk.

Merkel and other passengers initially remained on board the aircraft, called 'Konrad Adenauer', as mechanics inspected its brakes and several fire engines waited nearby, according to a Reuters reporter on board.

No details were immediately available about the cause of the technical issues.

The German military blog Augengeradeaus reported that the plane's transponder was transmitting the code 7600 which refers to a radio malfunction.

Later, the delegation traveled by bus to a hotel in Bonn.

Merkel, who had planned bilateral meetings with the presidents of the United States, China, Russia and India, was unlikely to arrive in Buenos Aires until Friday evening, German government sources said.
It was not immediately clear which bilateral meetings would have to be rescheduled.