Sun, Sep 02, 2007
Bang-What?
His boss may have cleared him of responsibility... but it still
must have been embarrassing for the pilot of an Airbus A380 now on
a demonstration tour throughout Asia, when his plane accidentally
scraped a building while taxiing for departure Saturday morning
from Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport.
Bloomberg reports the aircraft with 150 passengers onboard
scraped its wingtip against a maintenance building belonging to
Thai Airways International. The aircraft -- carrying 150
passengers, most of them Airbus personnel and Thai officials -- had
to taxi back to the terminal (we imagine very carefully.)
Fortunately, the only damage incurred was to one of the
aircraft's wing fences. Crews set about removing both winglets from
the aircraft, so it could continue on its trip.
"The aircraft can operate safely without the winglets," said
Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath. "The damage has been carefully
assessed and we will continue with our Asian roadshow."
The aircraft -- MSN007, destined for delivery to Singapore
Airlines next month -- took off on its trip to the northern city of
Chiang Mai over four hours late because of the incident.
Thai Airways president Apinan Sumanaserani defended his pilot,
saying the accident was not due to pilot error... but rather
because of the size of the aircraft, and the close proximity of
airport buildings to a turnaround area. He attributed the incident
to the crew's unfamiliarity with the airport.
After returning to Bangkok later in the day, the A380 is due to
head to Hanoi Sunday, and then on to Hong Kong -- where it will be
showcased at the Asian Aerospace Expo.
As ANN reported, Bangkok was
the first stop of the planned eight-day tour. We hope the rest of
the journey goes a bit more smoothly.
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