Summary Airbus BelugaXL delivers spare parts for damaged BA A350 at London Heathrow. The BelugaXL, based on A330-200F, replaced older BelugaST. Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 collided with A350-1000's horizontal stabilizer at Heathrow.
An Airbus BelugaXL has flown to London Heathrow to deliver spare parts for a British Airways A350 that had been damaged after another aircraft hit its horizontal stabilizer at London Heathrow. Simple Flying has previously reported that Airbus Beluga was expected to " perform a rescue mission sometime next week to return a damaged A350 back to commercial service. " Airbus BelugaXL flies in special parts for the stricken A350.
Data from Flightradar24 shows that the BelugaXL was scheduled at 10:00 local time to fly from the southern French city of Toulouse (a major base for Airbus and where the A350-1000 was manufactured) to London Heathrow. Flightradar24 also shows the Airbus Beluga scheduled to return to Toulouse later in the afternoon or evening. Air Live reported in April that a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9's left wingtip collided with the A350-1000's horizontal stabilizer as it was being towed from the stand at Heathrow's Terminal 3.
The impact damaged the A350's starboard-sized horizontal stabilizer. Before the collision, the Virgin flight (registered G-VDIA) had just arrived from Washington while the British Airways A350 (registered G-XWBC) had just flown from Accra in the West African country of Ghana. The Virgin 787 only suffered minimal da.