http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n...AUG06SOUTH.jpg

:eek:

Incidentally, how much does a new one cost ?

That would be quite a fall, and I'm sure we all hope the DS recovers soon.

When you think there can be up to 20 pax pressed into the suspended area when boarding I'm surprised to see there are no safety chains at the top as a fall-back to hold it in place.

If you look at the photograph you will see the most elaborate handrail arrangement round the top of the vertical leg mechanism, doubtless due to some health & safety concern for the occasional maintenance operative, but no safety backup for the main suspended part of the jetty itself where everyone works or walks through, which seems to have had some single-point failure having a close look at the photograph.

I understand that a jet bridge collapsed yesterday, hospitalising two staff. No apparent reason for the collapse and as a result there are no bridges in use now?

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/862/collapsepw2.jpg

Buster, see

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=240567

Allegedly the jetty collapsed completely on its own just when being positioned to the aircraft. Aircraft unscathed but two ground personnel badly hurt:uhoh: :uhoh:.

FD
(the un-real)

Whilst there are the two main low cost operators(ezy FR) flying from stn there is however still many airlines that specifically ask for a jetbridge to be used on the turnaround such as tcx, el al, air malta, cy and skyeurope to name just a few.
I can only think that BAA are the guilty ones in this case as there are enough airlines paying to operate from stn and not including the revenue from other london airports that they could maintain the bridges but in most cases to replace them as i believe these are already second hand from LHR.
Its funny to see BAA spending over 56 million at LHR in order to accomodate the a380 that keeps getting more and more delayed whilst many of the ground handling staff at stn have seen an incident like this coming for a long time.
Cant think what scene we would have had if the bridge was fitted and the csa was being disembarked!:suspect:

Great advertising for HSBC there!! Maybe they might want to rethink their sponsorship deal there or could just get BAA to buy some new ones!! Im sure a lot of groung handling staff will agree that they saw this one coming. Maybe time that STN was run like a proper airport and not matching the substandard of FR and EZ. There are many good airlines coming to stn but for the long term success of the airport they need to make it and attractive place to operate from. Will have to wait what BAA have to say about it all!! :sad:

That dispatcher was lucky it was not a B747 and that the jetty was already fairly low to the ground.

I hope the BAA are going to check out all the jetties at all the airports. One reason I heard why the first A380 into LHR was delayed was due to the new Pier 6 jetties being taken out of service after one of the power cable holders fell off from the top of the jetty, so they were all taken out of service to be inspected. Imagine the carnage if that STN accident had happened on a A380 Upper Deck jetty :eek:

As a jetty driver myself, I hope the guy/gal in hospital recovers soon and is straight on the phone to a lawyer.

:E

I believe those jetties were second hand from heathrow when they installed them into STN 15 years ago!

Care to expand on that comment.......? :hmm:

A4

Had a similar incident occur to me at Melbourne (Oz) a couple of years ago, when operating a leased QF B747-200 for Air Pacific.
A few minutes after all the pax had departed the airplane, and I was upstairs reading the local newspaper and enjoying dinner, we had a 2 hour turn on this occasion, there was an gigantic crash and the entire airplane shook. (Sounded just like a full galley cart falling over right next to your seat!)

I ran downstairs, those spiral staircases were great for quick descents, to find that the aerobridge supports had both failed, and the entire weight of the thing was being supported by the open door!
A quick call to maintenance got a forklift in place, and eventually the bridge was removed from the door/airplane.
So our 2+ hour turn, turned into an unplanned overnight, (don't you love those!), whilst the maintenance guys checked out the damage and got the necessary repairs done!

Cheers, FD :eek:

A4

I'll do it for him.

I worked at STN 2 years ago and nothing ever got fixed. If and when it did get seen to, it was never done in good time.
It was tatty back then so the incident with the air bridge just goes to show....

Mmmm can't say I'm surprised. These bridges are riddled with rust and are in a very poor state of repair! I have never seen any routine maintenance take place let alone any kind of testing.

It will definately be the last time I set foot on one!!

Just looking at the collapsed jetbridge yesterday summed it up for me at the general state of affairs at "Stand-still" (as it is known in my airline).
Broken baggage belts, crashing computers, fixed ground power and ACUs u/s, AGNIS u/s... the list goes on...

You should see the rust on the airbridges at Cardiff. Ramp safety inspection was carried out recently and asessed as OK. I guess they know more about it than me, but I wouldn't have put my signature to it.

As a regular flyer with both eayJet and Ryanair I find then far from sub-standard. Good fares, good routes, good frequency and modern aircraft and professional staff.

Flew into stn last night after a few days away. Landed at about 2345 which was ontime i left the airport at 00.45 why well there was 25minute wait at passport control, then another 20 minute wait for my bags then 15 minutes to leave the arrivals hall i know its the busiest time of the year but honestly :ugh:

With all the problems at stn that are all too apparent i get the impression that not enough pressure is put on the tennants BAA,I am sure anyone renting a house or anything else for that matter wouldnt stand for half the essentials breaking, and having to use run down appliances......so why do the airlines put up with it.

The airlines pay good money to operate from here and im sure if enough was said then maybe BAA might listen, and surely there is a small stash of cash between baa and ferrovial to actually repair these problems.

BAA's new owners Ferrovial, being essentially a construction company rather than a group of investors (they also own Amey, a major UK construction organisation), know rather more about condition of assets than the red braces brigade from Threadneedle Street might have done (or the jumped-up shopkeepers who previously inhabited BAA's upper echelons). They will thus doubtless have put a bit of contingency budget to one side to sort out any assets whose condition was hidden from them during the "Due Diligence" process of checking out a potential acquisition.

Things like this collapse will hopefully lead to some interesting investigations by the new owners, particularly if the Health & Safety Executive cause Senor Ferrovial himself to have to come over from Spain to answer their enquiry.

By the way, I notice the BAA PR department have worked overtime to keep this one out of the media. There's not a peep anywhere.

Tremendous bad luck for the ground staff involved - as if being paid a pittance and treated like dirt wasn't bad enough. If the airport authority is at fault in any way, I hope they get taken to the cleaners. I have seen a number of nasty injuries on the ramp to pax and colleagues as a result of various airport authorities neglect of essential safety precautions. Tight-fisted, penny-pinching @rseholes!

I guess we can only be glad nobody else was hurt as it could have been so much worse.

Speedy recovery folks.