OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney was forced to take a charter flight to Egypt for the historic signing of an agreement to end the Israel-Hamas war because there were no air crews available to fly a Canadian Armed Forces jet.

The trip to Sharm-el-Sheik was planned on short notice and the CAF members who usually crew flights on the Airbus passenger jets or smaller Challenger jets were deployed elsewhere, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

“With the summit being planned by the United States on an urgent timeline and invitations from the President being made so close to departure, overlapping existing operational needs resulted in the option of a Canadian Armed Forces airbus flight and related crews being unavailable for this transport,” the PMO said in a statement.

No aircrafts a

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