Air China 737-800 incident

[akerosid]

Saw this on Aerospacemedia:

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An Air China plane on a domestic flight knocked over an electricity pole while trying to land at an airport in southwest Guizhou province, state media said Monday.

None of the 132 passengers and crew members were injured in the incident Sunday -- the latest in a series of mishaps involving Chinese airlines, the Beijing News said, citing officials at the Guiyang Airport.

The accident happened when the airliner bound for southwest Chongqing municipality from southern Guangzhou city made a temporary landing at the airport in Guiyang city due to bad weather in Chongqing, the report said.

The Boeing 737-800's left airfoil uprooted a large, 10-meter (33-feet) pole beside the airstrip, the report said.

The accident left a big hole in the wing and the plane came to a stop after sliding for a few meters.

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Ouch!

[hobie]

There is certainly some questionable data in that incident report

[broadreach]

THIS is the stuff on which to speculate! Let's see, the left wing hit the 33ft pole, which in the process of being uprooted would have naturally swung the aircraft to the left. And, on landing, it only slid a few metres (-800 brakes). So it was certaiinly (please underline "certainly") wrongly aligned with the taxiway to the right of the pole and, by virtue of this leftwards nudge toward the runway proper, narrowly averted the catastrophe of ploughing through the 27 aircraft patiently awaiting departure with, er, say, 1,500 sob. Now, THAT, you can build a story on!

With apologies to the two who actually got the aircraft on the ground.