Airbus Beluga XL Makes Emergency Landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport after Heathrow Visit

An Airbus Beluga XL made an emergency landing at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) yesterday on September 10th. The Beluga declared an emergency while flying over the Netherlands and landed 20 minutes later. At the time of writing, the unique cargo jet is still on the grounds of Schiphol Airport.
 

Flight Information

The Beluga XL, registered as F-GXLI, was scheduled to fly from Saint Nazaire Montoir Airport (SNR) to Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport (XFW) yesterday on September 10th. The aircraft flew to Saint Nazaire that morning from Toulouse as Flight BGA 212I at 12:06 PM local time, scheduled to take off again an hour and a half later for Hamburg.

SNR (Saint Nazaire) and XFW (Hamburg) airports are both extensively used by Airbus. The company produces aircraft parts at Saint Nazaire and ships them off to Toulouse for assembly. Commercial flights operated by Air France serve the airport. On the other hand, the airport in Hamburg is actually the base of Airbus' main operations, as well as manufacturing and testing various aircraft. The airport does not have any commercial service, while a twice-daily corporate shuttle service to Toulouse is operated by Volotea.

The Airbus took off at 1:32 PM on time and was expected to land at Hamburg at 3:14 PM local time (both airports are in the same time zone). The flight climbed to and reached its cruising altitude of 34,000 feet 25 minutes after taking off at 1:56 PM.

An Unexpected Visit to the Netherlands

While the aircraft was heading towards Hamburg, it started descending from its cruising altitude while flying over Belgium at 2:23 PM. Seven minutes later, it reached 10,000 feet while flying over Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The crew squawked 7700 5 minutes later at 2:35 PM, declaring an emergency. The flight landed at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport 22 minutes later at 2:57 PM.

While Airbus has not released official statements regarding the flight, the 3,400 ft/min descent to 10,000 feet seems to imply that there was a pressurization issue in the cabin. The Beluga is still on the ground in Amsterdam at the time of writing.

A Previous Appearance in London

With only six built, the Beluga XL is a rare plane to spot. Two days ago on September 9th, a Beluga XL was sent to London Heathrow Airport (LHR). It is currently unknown whether this Beluga was the same aircraft as the one that diverted to Hamburg, but it definitely was not something that Heathrow plane spotters saw every day.

The Beluga XL was sent to Heathrow to deliver aircraft parts for British Airways. The parts were for a British Airways A350 which was involved in a ground collision with a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 in April. The A350, registered as G-XWBC, was grounded since April as it waited to get its right horizontal stabilizer repaired. Meanwhile, the Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787, registered as G-VDIA, was repaired in June and subsequently returned to service.