Qatar Airways

Bayern Munich team blocked seven hours inside aircraft after denial of after-midnight take-off clearance

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© Bram Botterman

An unexpected delay for the Bayern Munich football team on their way to the Club World Cup in Qatar: after their away game 0-1 win against Hertha BSC last Friday, the team wanted to travel from Berlin Brandenburg straight to Doha, Qatar. 

The German authorities, however, refused take-off clearance for Qatar Airways flight QR7402 as the request was done at 00:03 (UTC +1), three minutes past the local night flight restrictions at Berlin’s Brandenburg airport.

An exemption to the night flight restriction couldn’t be granted, hence the team was forced to stay onboard the Airbus A350-900 (registered A7-ANB) until the next morning at 07:00, seven hours later than originally scheduled.

Luckily, the players could sleep in their business class seats and enjoy the fully catered aircraft. But the delay was much to the dislike of Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Flight duty limitations forced a new flight schedule: from Berlin to Munich to change crew, then onward to Doha, where the team landed at 16:14 (local time).

The team is due to play Egyptian team Al Ahly in the Club World Cup semifinals on Monday.

This post was published on 9 February 2021 12:23

Bart Noëth

Working for 25 years in the aviation industry, I changed my career and became a firefighter/EMT in 2021. I like to spend my free time with my two sons, girlfriend, family and friends. I love to travel, wine and dine and support my favourite football squad KV Mechelen. Once an Ironman 70.3 finisher and dreaming of completing a full distance.

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