Oh well, at least it wasn't hit by a reggae truck...
July 7, 2008
A Concorde Is Disfigured While Parked in Brooklyn
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
The supersonic passenger jet known as Alpha Delta retired unscathed in 2003 after nearly 30 years of speeding back and forth over the Atlantic Ocean. But in less than two years in Brooklyn, it already has had its pointy nose knocked off.
In a multicultural crash in the middle of the night, the jet, a Concorde that is owned by a British airline, was hit by a truck that was hauling equipment from a Jamaican music and soccer festival. The truck clipped the distinctive nose cone off the parked Anglo-French jet about 3 a.m. last Monday, prompting an impassioned uproar among the jet’s band of enthusiasts.
To many admirers, the tapered nose, which could be lowered up to 12.5 degrees to clear the pilots’ field of vision during the jet’s steeply angled takeoffs and landings, was what made the Concorde the Concorde. Within 20 hours of the accident, photos of the damaged plane appeared on the Internet, and Concorde lovers were deploring the level of care it had received during its postretirement odyssey in New York.
Concorde Loses Its Nose Cone in an Accident in Brooklyn - NYTimes.com