Wingtip strike at PFO?

[Floppy Link]

From our source in Cyprus...

Mytravel A330 had a wingtip strike on the apron at Paphos last night, no further details.

big aircraft, dark, minimal apron markings, marshalling. There but for the grace of etc etc.
FL

[Kalium Chloride]

They'll be able to share bent-wingtip stories with BMI over a beer :D

[crewrest]

Nice attitude KC, hope it never happens to you.

[rentaghost]

Explains MYT A330 operating out of LGW with only one wingtip yesterday then.

[Silkman]

MYT A330 having a new wing tip fitted at MAN last night.

K.C. well I thought your comment was amusing :D

[tangocharlie]

K.C. agree with Silkman. Crewman get a sense of humour!

[AMEX]

;) KC
I hope we have all had problems that made us laugh (afterwards tough). You should try Crewrest, it isn't that bad....

[penguin]

Are they pilots suspended like the SQ pilots?

[sluggums]

Knowing the MYT management mentality..... probably

[TACAN]

Report from Friday's Cyprus Mail :

Minister orders urgent probe into airbus incident

COMMUNICATIONS and Works Minister Averoff Neophytou said yesterday he hoped to have a report in a matter of days on an incident on Wednesday night when an Airbus A330 clipped a pylon while taxiing at Paphos Airport.

Neophytou visited the airport yesterday to establish how the accident, which caused slight damage to the aircraft's wing, had happened.

The aircraft left the island early yesterday afternoon after repairs were carried out on the damaged wing, according to Andreas Opsimos, inspector of Civil Aviation at Paphos Airport.

The incident occurred at around 8pm on Wednesday as the 'My Travel' (formerly Airtours) plane carrying 357 passengers taxied towards the parking apron on arrival from Gatwick.

"We have asked for a full investigation to be carried out as soon as possible," Neophytou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday. He said there were conflicting reports as to how the taxiing plane went off course. "Each side is blaming the other," he said referring to the aircraft captain and the marshals guiding the plane to a stop. "They each gave very different accounts."

Neophytou said he hoped to have a report on the incident in a matter of days. "We have the co-operation of the airline as well and the manager of the safety department has flown in," Neophytou said.

Reports from Paphos yesterday suggested that the pilot was to blame and that he had gone off course while following the 'Follow Me' truck to the parking apron. However, informed sources told the Cyprus Mail that preliminary indications showed it was the marshals that were to blame.

Opsimos told the Cyprus Mail there was no question of a lack of space at the parking area, even though the A330 is probably the largest aircraft landing at Paphos. He said the runway at Paphos was the same as the one at Larnaca at 2,700 metres long and a width of 45 metres. The wingspan of the A330 is 60 metres and under international regulations the runway is of an adequate width to accommodate it.

One foreign pilot who regularly lands at Paphos said the authorities had extended the parking apron, but that certain markings had yet to be added, which would help guide the pilots to stop. "I was there in the last couple of days and we were guided only by the central line and hand signals," he said. "If people are not trained properly in guiding, this can be a problem."


TACCY

[18-Wheeler]

A330 the largest?
I've been in there in a 747-200 a couple of times ....
Molest me not with light twins! :)

[Max Angle]

With my anorak well and truly on and done right up! The A330 spans about 90cm more than a B747-200. 60.3m against 59.4m.

[Flex33]

Maybe, just maybe, if PFO airport had invested in a can of yellow paint & a brush this could have been avoided.

This could have happened to any one of use!

[Iz]

The new platform certainly is big enough but the marshallers don't know exactly what they're doing sometimes. Many of the marshallers on the Greek islands don't even know the correct signals!

A few weeks ago, we came into PFO, regular scheduled and charter services. The handling agent complained to us about our fueling policy and said the pax were complaining also. (Excuse me, what do the pax have to complain about our fueling?) He was clearly making the story about the unhappy pax up. Then he was pushing to get our pax to board the aircraft as soon as possible. Upon the question if fueling was already finished, he answered "Yes it's finished!", impatiently. I went outside and the fueling still took another five minutes.
Reason for his impatience was probably because another flight of ours had just arrived and he now had to take care of two flights at the same time (panic!).
I was shocked to see the horrible attitude of this handling agent, he was just plain lying to us.

Doesn't implicate anything regarding the story about the A330 but may shed some light on the attitude there.

[sky9]

There are no markings on the apron other than on the centreline of the taxiway. How the "Follow me" knows where to go, and we know that we have adequate wing tip clearance once we leave that centreline to park nose out is a mystery.
What is needed is the "tin of yellow paint" and a tape measure. At the present time we have the situation of the "blind leading the blind".

[Gaza]

I'm curious about how they got the aircraft back.

I don't know the full details but I'm assuming that if the wingtip struck a pylon then it would have been the winglet that was damaged.

If it was the winglet that was damaged, would it be removed? If it was removed would the winglet on the other wing also have to be removed to counter any inbalance?

[SLT]

The winglet was damaged in the incident, and was removed by engineers who flew out. Removing an A330/340 winglet is quite a straightforward affair - once released it just slides off. The difficulty comes with its size - it's kinda big and awkward!! Speed tape it all up and away you go. The MEL allows one winglet to be removed for flight - 1% fuel consumption penalty ensues. There used to be some weight resrictions as well, but apparently have recently been removed. Flight with both winglets off is not permitted.
There is no difference in a/c handling either.

[Gaza]

Thanks SLT.

Curiosity satisfied!:cool:

[airside]

I know that the aircraft fly back to EGKK with 349 pax. The info given by someone from the airport. When the aircraft flew to EGCC?
Any idea where we can see any photo of that?
It must be very interesting a flights from LCPO to UK with one winglet!:eek:
Anyway because i am working as "Follow-me" (Not in LCPO) i am looking for any details of the inc. for my personal records/experience.

Thanx in advance
Elliott
LGAV AMS

[wysiwyg]

Picky i know but I think you mean LCPH.

[Free State Bandit]

Not the first time that this has hapened due to crap marshalling.Happened to a BAL 767 few years back where a wing tip ended up in the blast fence. My advice in PFO is to ignore the marshaller and do your own thing, that way you keep safe. Seems to me is that most of the marshallers there have been to the 'Gerona school of marshalling' where the main aim of the bats is to keep ones self cool.

[763 jock]

What is really needed is "wing tip cam". This could be easily added to the "main gear cam" software. Once the "cabin cam" is installed all that's really required is a highly paid TV producer to edit the days highlights, package them up with the QAR/CVR onto a DVD and the boss can watch and hear your performance from his desk. Maybe then we could forget the sim! :D

[Mister Slot]

Just got in from a night PFO. Guess what?

Freshly painted yellow lines are starting to appear!!!