British Airways brand-new Airbus A350 XWB, delivered to the operator just in the previous month, was reportedly damaged after a hard landing in Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport, Israel (TLV) on January 19, 2020. Curiously, this is already the second incident in which the month-old aircraft is involved.
British Airways flight BA163 took off with a two hours delay from London Heathrow Airport (LHR), United Kingdom, on January 19, 2020, landing in Ben Gurion Airport (TLV), Israel some four hours later.
Upon arrival in Tel Aviv the Airbus A350-1000 (registration number G-XWBD) suffered the hard landing. Reportedly, on ground checks revealed damage to the aircraft.
This is already the second time when the one-month-old aircraft is damaged during an incident. Prior delivery to British Airways, the aircraft was damaged in an “incident” at an Airbus facility in November 2019.
The incident took place in a paint shop where the A350-1000 was parked at. The damage was caused by a piece of equipment surrounding the aircraft. “Airbus has assured us that the aircraft will be fully repaired and delivered shortly,” a spokesman for BA told AeroTime at the time.
British Airways finally took the delivery of its unlucky new A350 XWB the following month, in December 2019. As all British Airways A350-1000s, the airplane is configured in a three-class layout and can carry up to 331 passengers. The aircraft has a range of 8,700 miles (16,100 km) and is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines.