Monarch Aircraft Engineering £500,000 prang
 

Small photo at http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/m...jet_prang_.html

IT is the parking prang that will cost more than £½ million.

Ground staff reversing a passenger jet at Manchester Airport accidentally struck an aircraft hangar causing a long delay for more than 300 passengers - and a six-figure bill for holiday firm Thomas Cook.

The rudder on the Airbus 330 was twisted in the prang during a routine maintenance check by engineers.



Thomas Cook was immediately forced to cancel its scheduled flight to Cuba and scour airports around the world for a replacement aircraft big enough to take the 333 disappointed passengers.

After a frantic search, the only available stand-in plane was found - a Boeing 747 in Madrid.

It cost Thomas Cook £200,000 to charter the plane from a firm called Air Pullmantur and then to fly it from Spain to Manchester.

Meanwhile, the firm also had to pay an estimated £150,000 to fly a new rudder to Manchester in a Hercules cargo plane from the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France.

Repairing the damage is expected to cost an additional £200,000. And then there was the expense of arranging hotels for the 333 stranded passengers and supplying them with meal vouchers - another bill of around £25,000.

As the holidaymakers left Manchester Airport for Cayo Coco 30 hours late, Thomas Cook bosses were said to be "furious" at the sky-high cost of the minor crash.

It is understood it occurred while the aircraft was being moved on the ground by staff working for Monarch Aircraft Engineering.

Grandfather Kaz Janski, a holidaymaker from Huddersfield, was with a family of five who paid £4,000 for their trip.

Shortly before he finally boarded the replacement plane for the 10-hour flight, he said: "We were already in the departure lounge when we were eventually told we would be spending the night in Manchester."

A Thomas Cook spokesman said: "We did everything we could to help our passengers following the delay caused by this situation."

A spokesman for Monarch Aircraft Engineering said: "We can confirm that damage was caused to an aircraft while it was being manoeuvred. An investigation has been launched."

Your link is broken and I think someone got a bit carried away with the zeros on those guestimates.
£150000 to fly the rudder in - :rolleyes:

big deal, rudder got damaged so what? sh1t happens

Try this link

I think I'd look awfully closely at the fin for secondary damage.

I'd take back your comment, the photo was taken after a lot of work was already done preparing to remove the rudder.
The fin isn't damaged - just bits removed.

Just as a matter of interest, how are the banksmans career prospects doing???

****e happens, i was at BA when 2 similar things happened to 744's. one not our own! Both of which took months to repair!

I hope the usual corporate witch hunt doesnt ensue.

Human Factors anyone???:E


F/Satis

If MAEL MAN hasn't changed since I left, commercial pressure and table-banging are the norm.

"Sh1t happens" - What a professional attitude.

With attitudes of like this, what hope for the standing & status of LAEs?

Time & pressure no excuse for not having wing & tail men when putting an aircraft in or out of a hangar.

get your facts right facts please before posting crap like that when you havent a clue what went on, wingmen were present and the accident still happened no doubt not helped by the fact the driver has a very tight slot in the roof to get the fin through and a very limited area to manovuere his tug ,sh1t happens get over it