The United States may be the mightiest military and economic power in the world but when it comes to shuttling its top diplomat around the globe, it's beginning to look like a poor orphan. For the fourth time this year — and the second time in three months, Secretary of State John Kerry was forced to fly home commercially when his aging Air Force Boeing 757, known in military parlance as a C-32, was grounded on Thursday with a mechanical problem in Vienna. Inconvenient? Undoubtedly. Kerry, heading back to Washington from nuclear talks with senior European and Iranian officials, made light of the situation, telling aides: 'If the hardest thing that happens in a given day is that you have to fly commercial, your life is pretty good.'
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For the fourth time this year — and the second time in three months, Secretary of State John Kerry was forced to fly home commercially when his plane was grounded
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The Air Force Boeing 757 landed with a mechanical problem with Vienna
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Before his current trip, Kerry had logged more than 566,000 plane miles this year alone, according to the State Department
Iran hasn't been able to refurbish its pre-1979 fleet of @placeholder aircraft because of heavy U.S. sanctions.