Dusseldorf Airport and its spotters had an unexpected surprise on Monday. Eurowings Discover unexpectedly operated its first flight to the West-German airport. The landing was unplanned, with the aircraft diverting due to poor weather at the airline's base in Frankfurt. The aircraft continued on to Frankfurt a short while later.

This summer, the Lufthansa Group's newest subsidiary, Eurowings Discover, launched flights primarily targeted at the long-haul leisure travel market. Since then, the airline has been flying to destinations such as Mombassa, Punta Cana, and Windhoek. One destination that it was not planning to visit quite so soon is Dusseldorf, one of the bases of sister airline Eurowings.

Touching down in Dusseldorf

On Sunday evening, D-AFYQ left Windhoek in Namibia, bound for Frankfurt. It's unclear when flight 4Y133 departed Windhoek due to poor flight tracking coverage in the area. Despite this, the aircraft arrived in the general Frankfurt area at around 05:20 local time, roughly when it was due to land, according to RadarBox.com.

Unfortunately for the crew, the airport was reportedly covered in a layer of fog. Due to the poor weather, the aircraft had to divert, with the pilots opting for Dusseldorf to the northwest, where it touched down at 06:00. In a post on Instagram, Eurowings Discover revealed that this was the airline's first visit to Dusseldorf while sharing a photo taken by Luiza M, also known as @dus.spottergirl.

The aircraft waited for the fog in Frankfurt to clear and eventually took back to the skies at 08:26. It was a short hop down to the aircraft's home once the weather had cleared. The aircraft briefly reached a height of 19,000 feet, before descending down towards its intended destination. After a 41 minute flight, the jet touched down in Frankfurt at 09:08, just under four hours late.

Commenting on the incident, a Eurowings Discover spokesperson told Simple Flying,

"Our flight 4Y133 from Windhoek to Frankfurt diverted due to fog in Frankfurt. The flight continued to Frankfurt after weather improvement."

Hiring new A330 pilots

As the airline gets going, it is slowly increasing its fleet. By the end of the year, the airline hopes to add another ten aircraft for a total of 21 jets by summer 2022. Ten Airbus A320 aircraft will accompany 11 Airbus A330s.

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As more aircraft are brought online, the airline is looking for pilots to fly them. The company is currently advertising vacancies for First Officers and Captains for both the A330 and A320 on LinkedIn. In addition to a relevant EASA pilot license, prospective applicants must have at least 1,000 hours of flying experience on jet aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of over 5.7 tons.

To fly the Airbus A330, they must also have a type rating on the A330, A320 family, A340, A350, or A380. If it is not on the A330, they must have held the rating for at least three months and have clocked at least 150 flight hours on the relevant aircraft. No type rating is specified for the A320 positions, though the airline specifies an A320 type rating is preferred.

What do you make of Eurowings Discover's unexpected inaugural trip to Dusseldorf? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!