380 wing hits the deck.
Typical news media speil, but this incident is unfortunate. It's good that no one was hurt.
It will most likely create a blip in Toulouse production.
****************************************
1 January 2006
£15M CRASH LANDWING!
50-ton jumbo jet part falls off crane
By Matt Glass
JUMBO jet builders watched in horror as a new £15million wing fell from a crane and shattered.
The gigantic 50-ton plane part which had taken TWO MONTHS to build was smashed in seconds when a support chain snapped.
Workers at the Airbus plant near Chester stood in stunned silence as the 208ft wing - the length of seven double-decker buses - lay crumpled on the giant factory floor. An Airbus insider told the People: "As blunders go, it is astronomical. Everyone just fell deadly silent and people didn't know whether to laugh or cry."The wing was being hoisted for shipment to Germany over Christmas when disaster struck.
The damage is repairable but is estimated to cost £5 million to fix. Bosses at European-owned Airbus had to frantically ring round workers on their Christmas holidays to ask them to come in and repair the shattered wing.
The Chester plant - which is also building wings for the world's biggest passenger plane, the new double-deck A380 Megabus - had painstakingly constructed the part for Germany's Lufthansa airline.
Our source said: "Jumbo wings are incredibly expensive and take a long time to build, so the repair bill is going to be massive.
"It also means the plane it was destined for won't be ready on time. It's incredibly embarrassing."
An Airbus spokesman refused to comment.