A Lufthansa Airbus A340 tried twice to depart from Frankfurt Airport, Germany.
The aircraft, registration D-AIGO, was scheduled to depart in the direction of Denver (United States) last Monday afternoon at 1:10 PM. The A340 taxied towards runway 07C/25C, a runway with a length of 4,000 meters, at 2:05 PM. When the machine was about to take off, the pilots decided to abort the take-off for an unknown reason. At a speed of approximately thirty kilometers per hour, they left the track after 800 meters via an intersection. The A340 then made a circle after which it taxied again to the start of the runway.
Technical problem
Ten minutes later the machine still left for Denver, or at least the intention was to fly there. It soon became apparent that the A340 was suffering from a technical defect. A Lufthansa spokesperson said at the aeroTELEGRAPH that one of the undercarriage doors did not close. South of Bonn, a city about 180 kilometers away from the starting point, the A340 turned east. There the machine was put on hold, probably to discharge fuel. The flight duration from Frankfurt to Denver is approximately ten to eleven hours, according to data from Flightradar24. The A340 was therefore on hold for about an hour before it lined up for the same runway from which it had departed.
The machine arrived there a little less than two hours later take-off. It is not known whether a replacement flight has been arranged. The A340 was grounded in Frankfurt for three days. The plane made its return to the skies on Thursday with a flight to Seattle.
