The A350 is a brand spanking new aircraft from Airbus, the company is really proud of it, and so is Qatar Airways, which happens to be the launch partner for this aircraft. It’s the first airline that’s going to fly the Airbus A350 to three continents however things didn’t quite go according to plan when the airline’s first A350 flight suffered an epic fail. Don’t worry, nothing bad happened, it was just unexpected that’s all.
Qatar Airways invited a bunch of journalists and guests to fly on the A350’s inaugural flight from the JFK airport in New York City. Things didn’t quite go according to plan though as soon after it began powering down the runway the aircraft automatically aborted takeoff.
If you have ever sat through an aborted takeoff you will be aware that it can jolt you as you can feel the aircraft coming to a stop rapidly. It doesn’t necessarily mean something has gone horribly wrong, aborted takeoffs are routine procedure, but there’s always a bit of anxiousness when you’re in a plane that doesn’t quite have as many miles on it as others in its class.
Since the flight was full with journalists there’s no shortage of video clips online which document the aborted takeoff. It was later revealed by Qatar executives that the A350 had received a signal that the runway was too short and it auto-braked.
Passengers were shaken up though. Zach Honig of The Points Guy tweeted that “To give you another idea of how abruptly we stopped, nearly all of the 200+ pillows and blankets landed on the floor, having previously been neatly arranged on each seat in economy.”
Some passengers had asked to disembark but they were reportedly not allowed off by the airline. The flight took off again after two hours and flew smoothly all the way to Doha, landing without any more adventures.