How the world's largest passenger plane landed in Dresden

Alexander Schneider

Dresden. The sky is overcast, the grass is wet, the barbed wire fence is somehow always in the way. On the north side of the runway at Dresden Airport, many people are milling around. They are waiting spellbound for a giant whose arrival was only announced a few days ago. They are all looking forward to the Airbus A380-800, the largest passenger aircraft in the world. They had to wait eleven months, the last time such a behemoth landed here was in November last year.

Many of those who now have wet feet again are talking about the Australian "Qantas" plane that landed in Dresden early on a Sunday morning. After all, Sundays are a good day for extraordinary events. Today's Bridge Friday is similar.

Families have walked from Weixdorf, others have traveled hundreds of kilometers to be there when a former Chinese air giant, which has been parked in Glasgow, Scotland, since May, is now to be trimmed in Dresden to make it suitable for the line.

Jasmin raves about flying

Some are now standing right next to the airport fence, others have kept a clear distance from the runway, such as 14-year-old Jasmin from Pirna. She has been photographing airplanes and visiting airports for over a year, and of course she was here last year too. You just have to say "Qantas" and everyone knows what is meant.

Jasmin would like to work in aviation one day. "Maybe a flight attendant?" she says. Today's trip to Dresden was a coincidence, but next week, during the fall break, she is going to Prague for several days. To look at airplanes. Jasmin's father, who is standing a few meters away, is also looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, "chaos" breaks out in the nearby parking lot. There are cars from half of Saxony, Berlin, Brandenburg, Bavaria and even the Czech Republic. Anyone still coming now has to see where they are.

Excitement is building in the meadows. Most people are tracking the Airbus, which has been in the air since 12.30 pm. It took off from Glasgow-Prestwick. The arrival time is less clear. The landing was originally scheduled for 3.15 pm, then for 3.08 pm.

But since the A380 has been up there, the scheduled arrival time has been constantly changing. First to 2.35 p.m., then suddenly to 2.22 p.m. - some interested onlookers who hadn't yet made it to the wet meadows must have panicked.

Which direction will it come from?

One burning question is from which direction the plane will come. "Normal" would be from the direction of Weixdorf. But today it will probably be different. The spectators know this as a smaller plane takes off in the direction of Weixdorf. The Airbus from Scotland is therefore likely to fly in from the west, i.e. over Dresden.

Danny Nico Schneider, a plane spotter from Dresden, has only just arrived. The 44-year-old is passionate about taking photos of airplanes and is enthusiastic about the technology. He was out shopping at lunchtime when his app notified him of the earlier landing date. Danny then decided to take a cab to Weixdorf, as he wouldn't have been able to make it by public transport. "Never mind, I'm on vacation," he says.

When he sees the smaller passenger plane take off, Danny also knows that the Airbus will not land in front of him today. "It's a bit of a lottery to get on the right side." But his excitement is no less. At the "Qantas" event in November, Danny was lucky in a prize draw and was able to experience the landing with 49 other lucky people directly on the airport grounds and photograph the aircraft up close. A highlight for the spotter.

Holger (60) and Christian (30) from Berlin show that it can be even more extreme. You could call them "hardcore spotters", they are in Berlin once or twice a week with their cameras at the capital's BER airport. "We live nearby," says Holger. Dresden is a stone's throw away, but they also travel as far as Amsterdam, Cologne or Frankfurt am Main for their hobby. Holger will be flying to Beijing on Saturday. "I'd say a quarter sightseeing and three quarters aviation," he says of their destination.

Christian and Holger arrived two hours before landing. They have set up their telescopic ladder and the cameras are ready to shoot. They are about to take 200 to 500 photos. "The best ones will then be selected." After their brief happiness in Dresden, the two men from the "Berlin Spotters", as they call their internal group, still have hours of post-processing ahead of them.

The two experts already know that the A380 is very slow. "It only has 380 knots," says Christian. The Berliners suspect that the Airbus is traveling with its landing gear down, a precautionary measure because the "global" giant has not been in the air for a long time.

The arrival is delayed again. This should at least please those who had problems with parking. Others are looking anxiously at the sky and hoping that the weather will hold. It's not raining yet.

"Five more minutes!"

A man from Radebeul is eagerly awaiting the landing with his son. He works at Elbe Flugzeugwerke and is on vacation - but when unusual planes come in, the two of them watch them up close. "Five more minutes!" says the man.

Then the time has come. Bright spotlights appear in the clouds above Dresden. Slowly, majestically, they grow larger. At 2.49 p.m., the "Global" Airbus A380 with the registration "9H-GLOBL" descends very slowly over the runway. Now all the cameras, large ones with long telephoto lenses, small compact devices and hundreds of cell phones are probably taking pictures for all they're worth.

Not everyone takes pictures. Many simply look and are impressed by the sheer size of the jet. It is a good 70 meters long, 24 meters high and has a wingspan of almost 80 meters.

Over the next three months, the double-decker will be technically prepared for commercial service at Elbe Flugzeugwerke. To this end, the company has signed a contract with new customer Global Airlines. Elbe Flugzeugwerke is one of the few companies in the world with experience in the maintenance and repair of large passenger aircraft.

Experienced plane spotter Holger celebrates the day. "This is a real highlight", one of the top 3 experiences this year, he says. There is no other opportunity to see this aircraft like this. The Airbus is due to leave the factories again in December after its overhaul, so perhaps Holger and Christian will get to see it again.

When the men finally fold up their telescopic ladders, they are standing in the rain. Most of the other onlookers have already left - some are stuck in traffic jams trying to leave their forest parking lot. "It took us half an hour to get onto the road," says Josua, a budding forwarding agent from Gröditz. The 20-year-old, who is particularly enthusiastic about large airplanes, has recorded a video.