Ember application only shows blank page on errors, cannot render 'error' action

I am trying to implement error handling for my Ember application, especially when the API endpoints are down.

I tried to render an error template (error.hbs) using the error() action inside my application route. The rendering will result into internal error (Cannot read property 'push' of undefined, see line in Ember.

To render an error page the idea was to use the following action:

    error() {
        this.render('error', {
            into: 'application' // does not seem to exist
        });
    }

How can I force Ember to at least render something?

I use Ember 2.7.0