One of Airbus’ fleet of six BelugaXL transporter planes was forced to make an emergency diversion and land in Amsterdam after its crew reported a technical issue while en route from France to Germany on September 10, 2024.
The aircraft, registered F-GXLI and operated by in-house subsidiary Airbus Transport International, had departed from Saint-Nazaire Airport (SNR) in eastern France where the company has a manufacturing facility. The plane was heading to Hamburg-Finkenwerder Airport (XFW) where the manufacturer maintains a final assembly plant for Airbus A320neo family models.
The flight operated as normal at first, initially climbing to 34,000ft as it passed to the east of Paris. However, as the aircraft crossed the border between France and Belgium, the crew set 7700 on the aircraft’s transponder (indicating an inflight emergency) and requested an immediate descent and diversion to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) in the Netherlands, some 90 miles (144km) off the aircraft’s nose.
The aircraft initially descended to 10,000ft (which may indicate an onboard pressurization issue), leveling off at this height just seven minutes after the request to descend was first made. Air traffic controllers then vectored the aircraft towards Schiphol where the aircraft landed on runway 18C at 15:14 local time.
Given its size and the nature of its operation, the aircraft was parked at a remote stand on the airfield where it remains at the time of writing. However, according to data obtained from Flightradar24, the plane is due to depart from Amsterdam and continue on its journey to Hamburg at 17:05 on September 12, 2024.
The Airbus BelugaXL (formally referred to as the A330-743L) is a large transport aircraft based on the Airbus A330-200F. The aircraft was designed and built by Airbus to transport outsized cargo such as fuselage sections and wings between manufacturing plants across Europe and its final assembly plans in Toulouse and Hamburg.
However, through Airbus Transport International, the six aircraft are also made available for commercial charter when not being used for this primary purpose.
The company originally built five BelugaXL aircraft but as demand for the fleet’s services has grown, an additional sixth and final aircraft was added to the fleet in June 2024, as reported by AeroTime here. The aircraft offers a total capacity of 50,500 kg (111,333 lb) payload and can carry outsized and other unusual cargoes on short and medium-length flights.
It has been a busy week for the BelugaXL fleet. Just on September 9, 2024, another member of the fleet visited London-Heathrow Airport (LHR) for the first time, bringing in parts for a stricken British Airways Airbus A350-1000 that was involved in a ground collision with a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in April 2024.