THIS IS THE moment a Beluga XL plane came into land at a Flintshire village.

This month marks 30 years since the first-ever plane of that type made its maiden flight from Broughton.

And while it has been a daily sight in the skies above Flintshire ever since, it's not often you get the chance to capture it flying down low over the village as it looks to land at the Airbus site.

But that is exactly what Neil Edwards managed to do earlier this week.

TOP STORIES TODAY

Neil was in the 'right spot, at the right time' as he captured the huge aircraft over Meadow Road as it was coming in to land.

He posted the picture to the Beluga XL Hawarden Facebook page, leaving fellow group members amazed.

Keith Wilson said: "That's a fantastic shot."

Debbie Green said: "You should enter this in the photo competition (great photo !)"

While, Jon Muscott added: "Can’t park that there mate…”

The Beluga XL was designed to transport Airbus components from its factories across Europe.

The first flight took place on September 13, 1994, and lasted 4 hours and 23 minutes.

The certification process, which included 400 hours of flight time, was completed in September 1995, and led to the first of five examples for Airbus Industrie being delivered in January 1996.

The fleet was completed by delivery of the fifth example in December 2000.