Finnair A350 Leaves The Runway Lining Up For Takeoff In Helsinki

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A Finnair Airbus A350 suffered a runway excursion this weekend while preparing to leave its Helsinki base. The aircraft left the runway while lining up for takeoff on a flight to Dubai. While the flight was eventually able to depart, it reached the UAE several hours late.

Finnair, North America, Stockholm
The aircraft had to return to the apron for inspection. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

The flight in question

Finnair flight AY1963 is a regularly scheduled service that originates at the airline’s Helsinki-Vantaa (hub). Its scheduled departure time is a late one, at 23:30 local time. The overnight flight serves the UAE’s Dubai International Airport (DXB), where it has a timed arrival of 08:05 the following morning, according to scheduling data from RadarBox.com.

Accounting for the time difference between Helsinki and Dubai, this gives flight AY1963 a duration of six hours and 35 minutes. The service operates three times a week, on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday evenings. Finnair‘s only direct competition to Dubai is state-owned low-cost-carrier flydubai, which initially announced its presence on the route in 2018.

Data from RadarBox shows that Finnair has been using the flight number AY1963 on its Helsinki-Dubai route since mid-October. In the two months that have followed, it has exclusively deployed the Airbus A350-900 on this route. The example that it rostered to the service on the evening of December 10th was OH-LWA, a six-year-old aircraft.

Finnair-airbus-a350
Finnair has 16 A350s in its fleet, with three more on order. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

A slippery runway excursion

Delays to the December 10th iteration of flight AY1963 meant that it was actually the early hours of the following morning by the time the service was ready to leave the Finnish capital. However, the flight encountered a further setback before it could take to the skies, in the form of a runway excursion while lining up for departure. It was set to leave from runway 15.

According to The Aviation Herald, the aircraft was at holding point YA when controllers gave its pilots permission to line up on the departing runway. The crew noted slippery conditions as the jet began to move. However, controllers assured the pilots that the runway conditions were 4/4/4/4. According to Code7700, this reflects ‘good to medium’ conditions.

However, despite the controllers’ reassurances, and the fact that a runway condition check had reportedly just been carried out, the aircraft was unable to make the turn. This caused it to slip off the runway at an angle, with its nose gear ending up to the left of the strip.

Finnair Map
The flight eventually arrived five hours late. Image: RadarBox.com

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Lunchtime arrival

Following the excursion, the A350 remained in position for around 40 minutes before being towed onto the runway. However, it had to return to the apron for precautionary inspections before departing. It had already been around three hours late at the time of its first taxi attempt, and eventually took off nearly five hours behind schedule at 04:14.

The flight normally touches down in Dubai in time for breakfast. However, the delay meant its arrival, in this case, was better suited for lunch. It eventually landed four hours and 59 minutes late at 13:04 local time, after six hours and 50 minutes in the air. OH-LWA operated the return flight, AY1964, which was correspondingly also around five hours late.

Simple Flying has reached out to Finnair for further information regarding this incident.

What do you make of this incident? Were you onboard the delayed flight? Let us know your thoughts and experience in the comments.



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