Bodybuilder found asleep in German leader’s bed

THE drugged-up bodybuilder who was caught after frolicking aboard German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s private plane in July was actually dozing in the leader’s bed when police stormed the aircraft.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was at an opera in Bayreuth as the man boarded her private jet. Picture: AFP/GettyGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel was at an opera in Bayreuth as the man boarded her private jet. Picture: AFP/Getty
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was at an opera in Bayreuth as the man boarded her private jet. Picture: AFP/Getty

As police fired shots at him, one of their dogs was set loose to bite him twice, once on the right leg and on his left foot.

During his three-hour romp aboard the aircraft the bodybuilder, known only as Volkan T, aged 24, caused the equivalent of £85,000 worth of damage as he sprayed fire extinguisher foam on the handmade carpets, danced on the aircraft’s wings and damaged instruments in the cockpit.

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The German security services have already admitted that the incident was not their “finest hour” and an inquiry is under way which will almost certainly result in heads rolling.

Now comes the embarrassing admission that – dressed only in his underpants and clutching a bag of marijuana – the man was actually snoozing in the chancellor’s bed when police stormed the Airbus 319, which was parked in a military section of Cologne airport at the time.

The plane, which is also used by other top state officials including president Joachim Gauck, was delivered three years ago and is one of two medium-range A319 jets in the government fleet.

Volkan scrambled aboard through an open emergency exit door. The Airbus was loaded with up to eight tonnes of fuel and technically it could have taken off. Pressure sensors in the ground that sound an alarm when someone steps on them had apparently been switched off near the plane because of construction work.

Volkan had apparently had a drug-fuelled row with his girlfriend at his home in Cologne when he stormed out and drove to the airport. He got past a guard post by saying he had been invited to a wedding reception being held in the nearby officers’ quarters. He then climbed a barbed wire fence, walked across the tarmac, clambered onto the plane’s left wing and climbed aboard.

While playing with the cockpit buttons, he inadvertently triggered an alarm that was logged by military personnel at 8:40pm. But he wasn’t arrested until 12:23am when he was found wrapped in the chancellor’s silk sheets.

While all this was happening, Angela Merkel was hundreds of miles away watching the opera The Flying Dutchman at the opening of the annual Wagner opera festival in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth.

Volkan has been confined to a psychiatric hospital ever since while the plane has undergone extensive repairs. The jet needed new carpet, a new coat of paint on its wing and a new emergency slide. It was declared operational again last week after a successful test flight.

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