UAL 747 clips Qantas 767 at MEL
Quote:
Jumbo clips taxiing Qantas jet
Carmel Egan and Jenny McAsey
February 03, 2006
A SHUDDERING jolt ran through a Qantas jet as it was hit from behind by a United Airlines 747-400 on the tarmac at Melbourne airport yesterday.
The left wing of the Los Angeles-bound jumbo sheered off the tip of the right tail winglet on the Qantas Boeing 767.
The accident occurred as both planes taxied towards the runway in preparation for take-off just after 1pm. None of the 155 passengers and 11 crew on the Qantas jet and 99 passengers and 14 crew on the United Airlines flight was injured.
But for athlete Anna Worland, the accident almost resulted in her missing the Commonwealth Games selection trials in Sydney.
When Worland eventually made it to Sydney for her 1500m heat, after being delayed several hours, losing her luggage containing running gear and being stuck in Sydney traffic, she was relieved to hear the heats had been cancelled and that she would go straight into tonight's semi-finals.
The captain of QF434 described the incident as a clip from behind by another aircraft.
"We were going out as normal and all of a sudden there was this giant shudder through the whole plane," said Peter Kirk, who was on the domestic flight. "You can see a little damage on the leading edge of the United plane's wing."
Rowan Frew, who was going to Sydney for a holiday, was sitting in the middle of the Qantas jet.
"There was a loud shuddering noise and a united gasp from the passengers," she said. "Nobody was terribly alarmed."
United said in a statement that its flight 840 from Melbourne to Los Angeles via Sydney "reported a wingtip touch with a Qantas aircraft as it taxied".
According to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, responsibility for aircraft movements on the ground is shared by airline pilots and air traffic control.
The CASA manual for air traffic standards says: "The pilot in command is primarily responsible for ensuring separation from another aircraft."
However, Air Traffic Control "must control runway operations with landing and take-off clearances and facilitate a high movement rate by providing traffic information and/or sequencing instructions."
Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators flew from Canberra yesterday afternoon to begin a report into the incident
Right tail winglet = Horizontal stabilizer
Typhoonpilot
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