Small photo at
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/m...jet_prang_.html IT is the parking prang that will cost more than £½ million.
Ground staff reversing a passenger jet at Manchester Airport accidentally struck an aircraft hangar causing a long delay for more than 300 passengers - and a six-figure bill for holiday firm Thomas Cook.
The rudder on the Airbus 330 was twisted in the prang during a routine maintenance check by engineers.
Thomas Cook was immediately forced to cancel its scheduled flight to Cuba and scour airports around the world for a replacement aircraft big enough to take the 333 disappointed passengers.
After a frantic search, the only available stand-in plane was found - a Boeing 747 in Madrid.
It cost Thomas Cook £200,000 to charter the plane from a firm called Air Pullmantur and then to fly it from Spain to Manchester.
Meanwhile, the firm also had to pay an estimated £150,000 to fly a new rudder to Manchester in a Hercules cargo plane from the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France.
Repairing the damage is expected to cost an additional £200,000. And then there was the expense of arranging hotels for the 333 stranded passengers and supplying them with meal vouchers - another bill of around £25,000.
As the holidaymakers left Manchester Airport for Cayo Coco 30 hours late, Thomas Cook bosses were said to be "furious" at the sky-high cost of the minor crash.
It is understood it occurred while the aircraft was being moved on the ground by staff working for Monarch Aircraft Engineering.
Grandfather Kaz Janski, a holidaymaker from Huddersfield, was with a family of five who paid £4,000 for their trip.
Shortly before he finally boarded the replacement plane for the 10-hour flight, he said: "We were already in the departure lounge when we were eventually told we would be spending the night in Manchester."
A Thomas Cook spokesman said: "We did everything we could to help our passengers following the delay caused by this situation."
A spokesman for Monarch Aircraft Engineering said: "We can confirm that damage was caused to an aircraft while it was being manoeuvred. An investigation has been launched."
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