SINGAPORE – Vice presidents sometimes have power problems.

It had been a particularly long, eight-hour flight Sunday from Sydney to Singapore without the benefit of the warm fare from the galley or the film library aboard Air Force Two, with both the kitchen and in-flight cinema disabled by an electrical problem aboard the vice president’s aircraft.

The plane of Vice President Dick Cheney, it seemed, was at the mercy of a power surge.

Cheney was never out of communication with the White House, according to his staff. But the electrical problem was worrisome enough that staff members considered switching to a backup plane at Singapore.

To make matters worse, John Howard, the prime minister of Australia had let on that Cheney’s plane had been “diverted” to this island at the southern end of Malaysia. No diversionary tactics here, the vice president’s office maintained – AF Two was on course all the way, with a preplanned stop in Singapore for refueling.

The confusion with Howard apparently stemmed from the aircraft contacting Sydney Airport to inform the tower there of an electrical problem on the plane, but to say that it was proceeding on to Singapore.

“I am not aware of the full circumstances, and I have not been told, except that it has been diverted,” Howard, referring to the plane, told reporters in Sydney as the visiting vice president had ended a three-day stay.

“This was the scheduled, preplanned refuel stop,” said Lea Anne McBride, spokeswoman for the vice president. “We were not diverted.”

Trays of cheese cubes – jalapeno best – and crackers – wheat good – were delivered throughout the airplane to stave off starvation during the trip to Singapore. And we never were going to get to see one of the films, “Idiocracy.” Airborne censors had deemed “Idiocracy” too offensive for its sexual content. Must rent back home.

Earlier Sunday, the vice president’s motorcade had rolled from the Shangri-La Hotel overlooking Sydney’s harbor where he had spent two nights, and raced him out to the airport, bypassing the exit for Wooloomooloo.

Then, Air Force Two was airborne at 9:10 a.m. Sydney time – that’s 15 hours ahead of Chicago time. But it wasn’t too long into the flight before attendants started asking everyone to pull their computer and DVD player plugs from the sockets at the base of the seats.

Later, after insisting that the vice president’s communications were uninterrupted, staffers said the electrical problem would have to be examined in Singapore. If a smaller backup plane had to be deployed, some of those staffers would have ended up flying commercial.

We landed at Pay Lebar, a military base that had been the old commercial airport for Singapore. It was gray and cool. And it was not much longer than a half-hour before we were advised that the electrical problem was fixed and the plane was ready to roll.

The confusion coming out of Sydney led to a series of urgent questions from back home. CBS Radio News called this reporter about it. So a full report was provided about the circumstances surrounding Air Force Two’s fuel stop. Nothing much to report here, listeners of CBS Radio were told.

Just another long day on Air Force Two, gassed up and good to go.