A plane carrying German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Group of 20 meeting in Argentina was forced to make an unscheduled landing Thursday night in western Germany.

A German military blog reported it was due to technical problem with its radio.

Passengers are standing on the tarmac of Cologne Airport next to the Chancellor's Airbus "Konrad Adenauer". Chancellor Merkel had to interrupt her flight from Berlin to the G20 summit in Buenos Aires on Thursday evening due to a technical defect in the Chancellor's Airbus "Konrad Adenauer". [Photo: IC]

The government A340-300 VIP Airbus, which was en route to Buenos Aires, turned around over the Netherlands about an hour into the flight, the German news agency dpa reported.

The aircraft landed safely in Cologne about 9 p.m. (2000 GMT), with journalists on board reporting no injuries.

Later, two buses were seen driving away from the airfield, and German broadcaster DNF reported that Merkel was on board one of them.

Several firefighting vehicles were on stand-by as Merkel's plane landed because it had more fuel on board than is customary during landing, dpa reported.

A replacement German air force plane was being prepared to carry Merkel and her entourage to the G-20 meeting, which starts Friday in the Argentine capital.

The Cologne-Bonn airport has a military base called Cologne-Wahn that is adjacent to the civilian airport.

According to German military blog Augengeradeaus.net, the aircraft was transmitting a 7600 transponder code, indicating a radio failure.

German government planes, operated by the country's air force, have been plagued by technical problems in recent years.

In 2015, the same aircraft was grounded due to a technical problem shortly before Merkel was to fly to New Delhi, forcing her to switch to a distinctly less luxurious A310 troop carrier.

Merkel was told of the need to turn around Thursday night while she was holding a background briefing for journalists accompanying her to Buenos Aires.