The plane, bound for South Africa, left Findel at 8.30pm on Tuesday evening, but was forced to turn back over the Mediterranean. Cargolux confirmed the change in route was due to a fault with a weather radar, and the decision was made to return to Luxembourg to avoid thunderstorms over Africa for safety reasons.
The Boeing 747 then spent an hour and a half circling over the Grand Duchy and burning off kerosene, to ensure the aircraft was not too heavy to land at Luxembourg airport. Cargolux confirmed no kerosene was released over Luxembourg.
The aircraft circled between Ettelbruck and the Upper Sûre Lake for a total of 12 times before finally landing safely at 1.10am on Wednesday morning.
