LONDON – On Friday, November 18, one of Airbus’ new Beluga XL transport aircraft encountered a runway excursion whilst completing a U-Turn after landing to backtrack the runway in Albert Picardie Airport (BYF) in France.
Beluga XL Runway Excursion
The aircraft in question that was involved in this incident is F-GXLN, a four-month-old Airbus A330-743L Beluga XL that entered service with Airbus’ transport division in late September 2022. The aircraft is named Beluga XL 5.
F-GXLN was operating flight BGA127N from Saint-Nazaire/Montoir (SNR) to Albert Picardie (BYF), transporting parts to Airbus’ factory in Méaulte.
The aircraft departed Saint-Nazaire/Montoir (SNR) at 11:52 am and landed in Albert Picardie (BYF) at 12:44 am. During the flight, it had a cruising altitude of 28,000 feet, according to data from RadarBox.
Upon landing on runway 27 at Albert Picardie, Beluga XL 5 was attempting a U-Turn at the end of the runway to backtrack for parking; however, upon exiting the U-Turn, its nose gear and right main landing gear entered the soft grass causing the aircraft to become stuck in the mud.
The airport consequently closed runway 27 so that operations could begin to recover the aircraft and tow it to the parking ramp.
It is unclear at this stage if the aircraft has already been recovered or not, given that this happened on Friday, November 18, which at the time of posting was two days ago.
This is a developing story.
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