It never stop to amaze me to see the increasing discrepancy between the latest most expensive technology oprating in third world environemnt with vairous airports services operators paid a few hundred dollars a month and hardly trained . In fact it is surprising that no more such incidents occur.
I agree Singapore is not thirld world but it would be interesting to know who trained the bridge operator, how long was the specific A380 training and what is salary is.
If Singapore is anything like the UK...
It'll most likely be the dispatcher bridging the aircraft, who has received 2 or 3 days of training on airbridges (of which there's probably many types at the airport). They'll also be one of the least paid at the airport, around the £6.80 mark, for having the responsibility of bridging the aircraft, while trying to dispatch and load control the aircraft at the same time (I speak from experience
).
I haven't seen any details of the actual damage, but I suspect it's from the upper airbridge on the #2 engine or wing. You get extremely close to the engine/wing with the upper bridge and a foot or two the wrong way, you've made contact. Same goes for the 763 / A330 / 772 on the L2 door, and not to forget the 'classic' 737's with the pitot heads
