Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 Makes Contact With British Airways Airbus A350 At London Heathrow
Summary
- A Virgin Atlantic 787 collided with a British Airways A350 at Heathrow, causing minor but substantial damage.
- Virgin plane’s wing struck BA’s stabilizer during pushback at Terminal 3, prompting a full investigation.
- No passengers were on the 787 during the incident, BA had passengers. Both aircraft remain grounded.
A Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 Dreamliner has collided with a parked British Airways Airbus A350 on the apron at Heathrow Airport. The two aircraft clashed as a tug vehicle pushed the Virgin plane back from the gate.
Virgin 787 collides with BA A350
The accident happened near Terminal 3 at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) at around midday on April 6th, following the arrival of both aircraft from their originating airports. According to Aviation Safety Network, a Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (registration: G-VDIA) was being pushed back from the gate by a tow tractor when its left wingtip impacted with the right-hand side of the vertical stabilizer of a British Airways Airbus A350-1000 (registration: G-XWBC).
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson commented,
“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. 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.”
Witnesses posted video footage and photos of the situation following the accident, showing the two planes stuck on the apron. Emergency services arrived quickly on the scene following the collision, which was described as a minor bump, but still enough to cause substantial damage to the impact areas. Judging by the pictures, it appears that the BA plane’s horizontal stabilizer came off worse.
A British Airways spokesperson confirmed the incident, stating,
“One of our aircraft, whilst stationary at Heathrow earlier today, was involved in a collision with another airline’s jet, which was being towed from a stand at the time. Our aircraft is being assessed by our engineering teams.”
BA plane had passengers on
According to a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson, its Boeing 787 did not have any passengers onboard when the impact occurred – however, there were reportedly passengers onboard the BA A350, with the airline stating there were “no passenger injuries” reported.
British Airways Receives Final Airbus A350-1000
The delivery flight took place on February 21.
The A350 was due to fly back to Accra, Ghana, having arrived in London at around 06:00 that morning, while the Virgin 787 had completed a seven-hour flight from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), landing in the British capital at 11:07.
Both aircraft remain grounded
Data from flight tracking site Flightradar24 shows that both of the aircraft remain on the ground following the accident. British Airways put affected passengers onto a new aircraft (registration: G-XWBB), which is scheduled to fly passengers out at 18:30 the same evening.
Photo: Abdul N Quraishi – Abs | Shutterstock
The Airbus A350-1000 has one of the widest wingspans of any passenger jet in service today at 64.75 meters (212 ft), eclipsed only by the Boeing 747-8 (68.4 meters, or 224 ft) and the largest of all, the Airbus A380 at 79.75 meters (261 ft).
