Summary
- Beluga XL is expected to perform a rescue mission for a damaged British Airways A350 in London next week.
- The incident occurred in April when a Virgin Atlantic Dreamliner collided with a British Airways A350 during pushback, damaging the A350’s horizontal stabilizer.
- The Beluga XL offers 30% higher cargo capacity than the Beluga.
Airbus’ mega-transport aircraft, Beluga, is reportedly expected to perform a rescue mission by delivering important aircraft parts to a damaged British Airways A350, which has been stranded in London for months now. The rescue mission is set to take place next week, and online reports suggest it will be the larger XL variant flying to London.
Beluga to the rescue
The Airbus Beluga is a cargo transport aircraft developed by
Airbus
for transporting large and heavy cargo via air that would not fit within a regular cargo aircraft fuselage. However, online reports, according to Aerotime and other sources, indicate that an Airbus Beluga XL is expected to perform a rescue mission sometime next week to return a damaged A350 back to commercial service.
The damaged aircraft is a
British Airways
Airbus A350-1000. It was damaged earlier this year, in April, when a
Virgin Atlantic
Dreamliner collided with the A350 during pushback, thereby damaging the A350’s starboard side horizontal stabilizer.
The aircraft has remained grounded at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) ever since the incident. The Beluga, expected to fly into London next week, will be carrying the spare parts required to repair the damaged stabilizer and return the A350 to commercial service.
The Incident
The incident in question occurred over four months ago, on April 6th, when an eight-year-old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner operated by Virgin Atlantic collided with a parked four-year-old Airbus A350-1000 belonging to British Airways during aircraft pushback.
While Virgin Atlantic’s Dreamliner also sustained damage, the aircraft returned to the skies after being grounded for over two months and, according to FlightRadar24.com, performing a 94-minute test flight before returning to commercial service later that day. British Airways’ A350, on the other hand, still remains grounded, but with the spare parts expected to arrive next week, hopefully, the airline can repair the aircraft and make it airworthy.
Ground collisions, though rare, do tend to happen from time to time, often involving a pushback tug. However, there have also been various instances where the pilot taxied the aircraft with another ground object or even another aircraft due to miscommunication or a momentary loss of situational awareness.
The Beluga
The Airbus Beluga is essentially a redesigned Airbus A300, while the larger Beluga XL is based on the Airbus A330-200 aircraft. Though these aircraft were designed to carry aircraft parts between various Airbus factories and assembly points around the world, the services of these aircraft can be utilized for the transport of other cargo aircraft as well.
The regular Beluga entered commercial service in the mid-1990s, and Airbus eventually made five aircraft of the type. However, due to the manufacturer’s expansion over the following decades, Airbus decided to build the Beluga XL in 2013, and the aircraft was certified in 2019. Airbus went on to build six of these aircraft with the last one being built in 2023.
The Beluga XLs are meant to eventually replace the older Belugas, as these aircraft are newer and more efficient. Furthermore, the Beluga XL offers increased cargo capacity available by 30%.