An Airbus BelugaXL touched down at Heathrow Airport on Monday, giving London plane-spotters the rare chance to see the whale-like aircraft.

The unusually shaped carrier, which resembles a beluga whale, delivers spare parts to fix Airbus carriers. It touched down at 11am after flying from Toulouse in France. It was a welcome sight for British Airways, which required parts to fix a plane that had been grounded since a collision in April.

The sighting caused amusement on X, with some users saying it looked like a whale and others thinking it paid a closer resemblance to an ex-footballer.

watching an airbus beluga land in London on @BigJetTVLIVE – i always love that not only do they look like belugas in shape, but someone in design actually decided to put a cute whale face on them pic.twitter.com/YdRjZFYB7O

— Mad 51 days! (@madzilla84) September 9, 2024

Back in April, a Virgin Boeing 787-9 plane had completed a flight and had no passengers on board while it was being towed to a different part of the airfield when it collided with the stationary British Airways plane.

The BA aircraft is being assessed by engineering teams, the company said, adding it has provided an alternative aircraft to “limit the impact on our customers”.

Meanwhile, at our London Office…

My co-worker Mr. King got a fantastic view of the @Airbus Beluga landing at @HeathrowAirport. I am not jealous at alllllll. https://t.co/wkbAcfxmD9 pic.twitter.com/E9l9ycxfNm

— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) September 9, 2024

The Airbus Beluga landed in Heathrow Airport today to deliver spare parts for a damaged plane pic.twitter.com/upgm1U3biy

— UB1UB2 West London (Southall) (@UB1UB2) September 9, 2024

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