British Airways' fourth Airbus A350 is back in the skies. The aircraft was briefly grounded in Tel Aviv for routine maintenance following a hard landing. This is the second incident that the aircraft has encountered to date. The first happened at Airbus prior to delivery.

The Airbus A350 is the latest addition to the British Airways fleet. The widebody aircraft has no first-class cabin, however, debuted the carrier's new Club Suite. By the end of 2019, the airline had received four of the Airbus A350. All four are currently flying to destinations such as Toronto and Tel Aviv.

Hard Tel Aviv landing

Upon arrival at Tel Aviv, the airline's most recent Airbus A350 made a fairly hard landing. As a result of the landing, the aircraft was temporarily withdrawn from service while engineers gave it a routine look over. However, the aircraft is now back in the skies.

The flight which experienced the hard landing was British Airways flight BA163 on Sunday 19th of January. The flight had been due to depart from London Heathrow at 21:10. However, it, unfortunately, did not get airborne until 23:26, over two hours behind schedule.

British Airways, Airbus A350, Hard Landing
The aircraft has since returned to London. Photo: British Airways

As a result, the aircraft arrived in Tel Aviv at 05:33, around an hour and a half after the scheduled arrival time of 03:55. The widebody aircraft's flight time was four hours and seven minutes.

After its landing, the aircraft taxied to the gate. However, due to the hard landing, the return leg to London was canceled. This was to allow engineers to give the aircraft a look over to make sure nothing had been damaged by the landing. The aircraft was ferried back to London yesterday. It is expected to return to Tel Aviv tonight.

Commenting on the incident, a British Airways spokesperson told Simple Flying:

The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority. ​We're sorry for the delay in our customers' travel plans as we rebook them onto other services after their aircraft experienced a hard landing on the previous flight into Tel Aviv.

The aircraft's second incident

Despite only being delivered less than a month ago, this is G-XWBD's second incident. However, the first occurred prior to delivery while the aircraft was still in the care of Airbus. The aircraft was damaged whilst in a hangar in Toulouse.

British Airways, Airbus A350, Hard Landing
G-XWBD was previously damaged in a hangar in Toulouse. Photo: Airbus via British Airways

However, the European aircraft manufacturer took steps to repair the aircraft. It was able to deliver the aircraft in December by the end of the year as had been planned. As a result, the aircraft entered service with British Airways on the 1st of January 2020, having been delivered on the 23rd of December.

Were you onboard G-XWBD during its hard landing at the weekend? Let us know your experience in the comments.