0 min left

Man Crashes Into A330, Causes $1M in Damage

The driver of a baggage truck that hit a China Airlines aircraft at Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) last week will lose his license. The collision occurred as the Airbus A330 was about to take off, denting the fuselage and causing an estimated $1 million in damage.

An investigation found that the driver, Truong Van Toan, was entirely to blame for the incident. He will lose his license for two years. The Southern Airports Authority said Toan’s actions “caused a serious threat to aviation safety.”

More than 300 passengers were delayed by 15 hours because of the incident, according to the airline.

For more information on this story, visit Thanhnien News.

[Photo: Thanh Nien]

 

Comments are Closed.
1 Comments
D
drvannostren September 3, 2015

HOLD ON. Having worked on the ramp at YVR for 6 years, I gotta ask how this happens? First off, lost license? I should hope he's lost his job as well. As I read the article on Thanhnien, Flyertalk has taken a line that's totally misleading. "As it was about to take off" is a total misnomer here. The plane wasn't moving, it wasn't on the taxiway, it wasn't near the runway, so not it wasn't ABOUT TO TAKE OFF. When I read that I thought holy crap he drove on to the runway and hit it? This could been a much bigger disaster. He hit a stationary plane because he "mistook the gas for the brake". Whatever, that CAN happen, but this is easily preventable. If you're going to load baggage, you NEVER attack the plane head on. You always drive parallel to the fuselage. If you're using a belt loader, at the back of an A330, it is set up perpendicular to the fuselage into the door. So there's no reason to EVER face the nose of your vehicle towards the fuselage. You pull up the tug/truck/tractor in line with the aircraft, either tail to nose or nose to tail depending on each airline's specific SOPs and you load from there. Break checks should be done, but I'll admit I didn't do them as often as I should have. If you're using a flat deck loader for the baggage cans on the A330, same exact procedure applies. The only difference being you may drive under the wing. It's not allowed by many airlines, as a precaution, but many contractors/airlines do it anyway. But again, even then, you should never be "attacking" a plane head on, and you should never drive up so close (with anything other than a belt loader, flat deck loader, catering truck or maintenance truck) that you have a chance to hit the plane. This is a negligent employee, who has probably done these flights hundreds of times, but his little gas/break mistake now caused a huge problem. He's been at risk this whole time but only this time did it come to fruition.