Aircraft

One of the two Airbus A380s currently undertaking the flight test programme touched down yesterday in the Colombian city of Medellín ahead of its hot-and-high trials in Latin America.

The aircraft, MSN004, landed at José María Córdova international airport at 15:25 folowing a 8,470km (4,580nm) flight from Toulouse with a crew of 35 flight test personnel.

Airbus will not comment on the test campaign until it is complete, but MSN004 is expected to fly on to La Paz, Bolivia where hot-and-high altitude performance tests are traditionally undertaken.  During these trials, the aircraft will carry out take-offs and landings at high temperatures at El Alto airport in La Paz, which has an airfield elevation of in excess of 13,000ft (3,940m).

The Rolls-Royce Trent 900-powered aircraft (pictured above) is all-white  again following the removal of the Emirates Airline livery, with which it was adorned for the Dubai air show in November last year.

More photos of the aircraft's arrival and details (in Spanish) of the reception party are available from Colombian newspaper El Colombiano.