( dpa ) - Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov cancelled his visit to Mexico on Wednesday after his plane had to make an emergency landing on the Azores Islands in the middle of the Atlantic.
Parvanov's Russian-made Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft was forced to return to the Azores after it developed a "mechanical problem" shortly after a fuel-stop in the same place, his cabinet said in a statement.
The plane first however had to circle until it spent almost all of the fuel. Nobody was injured in the incident.
Later Wednesday, Transport Minister Petar Mutafzhiev said that the NATO and European Union member-state Bulgaria planned to buy two Airbus aircraft for the needs of the state leadership.
Parvanov and his delegation were expected to arrive in Lisbon Wednesday evening on a special BulgariaAir flight.