Posted on 04/06/2024 9:01:39 AM PDT by george76
A Virgin Atlantic 787 has collided with a British Airways Airbus A350 while pushing back from the terminal building at Heathrow airport causing minor damage to both aircraft.
The Virgin jet was being guided by a tug when its winglets struck the tail of the neighbouring BA jet.
Emergency services raced to the scene following the low-speed impact.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: 'We are aware that the wingtip of one of our empty aircraft came into contact with another aircraft whilst being towed from the stand at London Heathrow Terminal 3.
'The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority. We can confirm no customers were on board the Virgin Atlantic aircraft during this time.
'We've commenced a full and thorough investigation and our engineering teams are performing maintenance checks on the aircraft, which for now has been taken out of service.'
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The British Airways jet had recently arrived in London from Accra, Ghana
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BA said it has provided an alternative aircraft to 'limit the impact on our customers'.
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Luggage handlers were operating in the area of the British Airways jet when the impact occurred.
At least five fire engines attended the scene in case there was any fuel leaks or possible fire.
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Investigators will want to know if there were sufficient personnel involved in the push back from the terminal building, and how the Virgin jet was able to strike the horizontal stabiliser of the British Airways jet.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You only had one job to do!
Priority 1, when moving an aircraft...don’t hit anything.
So what happened to ‘wing walkers’ when pushing back from the jetway?
‘wingletS’ hit the tail of another jet? I didn’t know the 787 was also available in a biplane configuration. /s
Looked it up. Aircraft grade duct tape.
>These kinds of incidents are happening more and more frequently and it’s not just a case of more being reported on due to media scrutiny.<
No. These incidents happen more than you realize. It just gets reported in the media more. Almost all, if not every one of them, involve a ground crew towing an airplane.
Years ago airlines required a crew to tow an airplane. Now most of it is done with a two man SuperTug crew. That’s the one that lifts the nosewheel up in a cradle, not using a towbar.
With passengers there is a larger crew with wing walkers, a driver, and a “monkey on the headset”.
I finished a 41 year career without any bent metal. It’s not that hard.
EC
More likely it is unqualified DEI hires.
“A Virgin Atlantic 787 has collided with a British Airways Airbus A350 while pushing back from the terminal building at Heathrow airport causing minor damage to both aircraft.”
My how they really paint a different picture than it really was. The by-line is easily pictured as the VA aircraft missing the runway and coming down on the taxiway while the airbus was being lined up for the taxiway. And the way things have been accomplished with the continual lack of safety lately I could see it.
wy69
Was a DEI tranny pedo at the controls?
Most airport ramp areas are very crowded, in the case of some international airports extremely so.
Given the tens of thousands of aircraft movements every day, the 99.99 safe movement seems to indicate they have.
Those DEI Trans pilots don’t mind a little banging into each other.
I see what you did there
DEI strikes again.
Now that’s a ‘Near Miss’.
“Those planes almost missed.”
“Yeah, but not quite!”
Have seen a lot of mistakes over my career. Some really serious and even tragic.
Once saw a GE 90 engine and it's transport cradle get knocked off a semi when the trucker went the big engine hit the bottom of under a too small clearance underpass. which was a very expensive and easily avoidable mistake.
These incidents really are becoming more and more common.
Reasons range from poor leadership and poor supervision from management, breakdown of formal systems and procedures, cost cutting and scheduling pressure and it's impact on maintenance, turnover of skilled and experienced people combined with a lack of similarly capable replacements, general supply chain break downs and degradation of quality control across the board and now the imposition of DEI policies on workforce.
Things simply are not working as well as they used to and it's beginning to take it's toll.
Slam bam thank you ma’am.
Not a virgin anymore.
Dudes, at least read the first couple of sentences of the excerpt before embarrassing yourselves.
“guided by a tug”
Tug driver was moving the plane, not the cockpit crew.
Oops...wait a minute...one of these guys:
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