A DHL Air Boeing 767-300ER freighter was forced to return to Amsterdam not once but twice after suffering flap retraction issues after take-off from the Dutch airport. The incidents, which occurred on September 18, 2024, are now the subject of an investigation as to how the same issue caused the flight to return twice on the same day.
On the day in question, DHL Air (Austria) Boeing 767-300ER freighter was operating a routine cargo flight from Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport to London-Luton Airport as flight QY6700. The plane took off from runway 36L at Schiphol at 14:42 local time. However, just six minutes later having reached an altitude of 6,000ft (1,830m), the crew leveled the aircraft off and requested an immediate return to the airport.
Having received clearance to do so, the plane turned south and began its descent back towards Schiphol. The flight landed safely on runway 06 at 15:02, just twenty minutes after take-off, and returned to its stand on the cargo apron.
The aircraft was then attended to by engineers who, after around two hours, declared the problem fixed and the aircraft fit to fly once more.
As before, the airplane taxied out to the end of runway 36L and began its second take-off run of the afternoon, becoming airborne at 18:02. However, once again, having headed west towards London-Luton, the crew stopped the climb just four minutes after take-off with the plane just having reached 6,000ft. The crew again elected to return to Schiphol and advised air traffic controllers at the airport of a possible high-speed landing due to the flaps not being able to extend.
The aircraft landed safely on runway 06 at about 170 knots around 15 minutes after departure. Once again, the aircraft returned to the apron where engineers awaited its return once again. The aircraft remained on the ground for about 27 hours before returning to service on September 19, 2024, on the short hop to the company’s European hub in Leipzig, Germany. The aircraft has since successfully completed missions to Helsinki and Bologna without further incident.
The aircraft involved in both incidents was a Boeing 767-300ER converted freighter registered OE-LYA. The aircraft was first delivered in May 2000 to Air Europa of Spain. It subsequently had passenger-carrying careers with Zoom Airlines (UK) and Royal Air Maroc before being converted to a freighter variant in 2019. It then began life as a cargo plane, firstly with Kalitta Air before joining the DHL fleet in May 2022.