Truck hits VB aircraft in sydney

[newbiesyd]

I've never had anything interesting to post till now ... this morning at sydney airport I enquired as to why DJ211 SYDBNE 0800 was cancelled. The check-in lady told me a catering truck accidentally hit the aircraft while passengers were in the process of boarding. She then let it slip that driver of the catering truck decided to take off and not report it! A refueller saw the incident (so did some passengers) and reported it. The incident occurred after the Captain's pre-flight inspection so it would not have been discovered if the incident had not been witnessed by others. There were some other cabin crew talking about it at the boarding lounge about it too and the words "hit and run" were used. One of them was explaining to another ground staff that the rear door was damaged and pressurisation would have been screwed. I would like to think the truck driver wasn't aware he damaged the aircraft but if he was and split imagine the trouble a damaged aircraft could get into should it be have departed as usual :ugh:

Anyone know anything else or has it just been blown out of proportion by some excited staff??

[Buster Hyman]

IF they could close the door and IF there was no pressure loss indication when they pressurised...then there may be some concern.

The real issue is driving away knowing you've damaged an aircraft. We'll see if he's still there Monday morning eh?

[bob55]

Would have made a good (or bad) episode of Air Crash Investigations.

Thankfully it didn't get that far. The driver should be shot - how do you hit an aircraft and not know it?

[sinala1]

Sounds a bit far fetched based on the information provided in the first post... For a catering truck to have hit the 'rear door' and caused pressurisation problems, it would have had to have been a full lift truck. VB only uses full-lift trucks when an a/c is either a) loading/unloading originating/terminating carts in a mainline port, or b) a flight that overnighted in an outstation such as LST, HBA, ROK etc and had not had a full complement of catering loaded in the outstation - fresh carts loaded when the a/c lands in a mainline port.

99.99999% of the time, boarding clearance is not given whilst these full-lift trucks are present at the aircraft.

So, what I fail to understand, is how pax could have seen the catering truck hit the R2 door (this is the only door those trucks pull up to) during boarding? I think there may be some wires crossed somewhere along the line, so I will be interested to find out the full story. :confused:

[Pass-A-Frozo]

It's not hard for passengers standing in the terminal with this view to see if an aircraft has been hit by a truck. The real thing is training the crew servicing an aircraft along the same lines as aircrew. e.g. If you overspeed the gear (pre maint recording that would pic that up after the flight) you need to tell someone... or people die.
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/02/03/virginblue_wideweb__430x287.jpgSpeaking of VB.. where did old TK go? I hear that he's a captain?? PM me TK!

[planemad2]

The real thing is training the crew servicing an aircraft along the same lines as aircrew.

OR have LAMEs on tarmac as we did for decades. :rolleyes:

[B A Lert]

OR have LAMEs on tarmac as we did for decades. :rolleyes:

Wouldn't necessarily help except to employ more engineers. There are many many examples of aircraft into object and object into aircraft when LAME's have been present. Training AND awareness are the keys, not to mention honesty.

[sinala1]

It's not hard for passengers standing in the terminal with this view to see if an aircraft has been hit by a truck.

Agreed... apologies, I interpreted it to mean the pax were boarding via tarmac and saw the collision

[planemad2]

Well obviously even an LAME cannot stop some idiot damaging an Aircraft. :rolleyes:

However there is much more chance of this damaged being detected before flight when there is a Professional LAME in attendance, rather than say a Baggage Handler doing the despatch on the cheap. :eek:

[smile]

Sounds plausable to me! Sinala, you and I both know how quickly the caterers in SYD "dump" our catering and then get away as fast as they can.:mad: :mad: :mad:

[sinala1]

I still want to know though how they hit the 'rear door'???

Either way, if it happened as described, there is to be some serious a$$ kicking going on me thinks :hmm:

[TIMMEEEE]

This is an endemic problem world wide that causes literally tens of millions of dollars damage each year.

All airlines, especially those that own their own catering especially seem to fair worse.

What is it with these catering truck drivers?

How much do the companies pay for insurance because it must cost a mint!

Do drivers get sacked or do they just get a stern lecture?

I have heard of one guy damaging 4 aircraft over a ten year period and still keeping their job.

Surely if these guys are threatened with demotion/dismissal (in blatant cases)/heavy penalties then they'd approach aircraft with more care and respect.

Driving away from the scene of the crime????
Dont know about that one but Jesus!!

[Aussie]

Who services VB? Is it Cater Air or Gate Gourmet?

Aussie

[sinala1]

Its International Airline Services, and on most turnarounds they only bring a small truck, and only to the LHS of the aircraft so that catering can be manually carried up L2 stairs

[GearOff]

Whilst threatening them with the sack might promote careful driving, it wouldn't promote honesty in the event of inevitable accidents. It's a double-edged sword unfortunately.

[computer says no]

Just to back up what newbie said, the facts are correct. I can't help you out with how they found out about it or how it happened, but I was there at the time by chance and the truck certainly did hit and do the runner. Whether he knew or not the extent of his actions is unknown to me but there was a hunt to find the closest catering truck to the aircraft and not long after he was nabbed over near the Rex bays on his way out the gate.

I do know he lost a good proportion of the points on his airside licence from the airport corp, however the ramifications from his employer are probably far more severe.

It amazes me how some of these IAS people are allowed out there, about an hour after this, another one drove behind an ANZ engine run. It really leaves you wondering......