BA Aberdeen incident
 

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scot...?id=2058632005

MORE than 50 passengers were delayed overnight after their aircraft was damaged in a freak accident shortly before take-off at Aberdeen Airport.

The drama happened when a support vehicle tangled with the propeller of a British Airways aircraft, causing all 57 passengers to be evacuated.

Last night, the passengers were put up in Aberdeen hotels after the plane was taken out of action and the flight cancelled.

The BA4148 City Express 8:39pm flight, bound for Manchester, was understood to have been getting a "jump start" from a mobile Automated Power Unit when the accident happened. A cable leading from the vehicle tangled in the propellers and caused "severe damage" to both the ground vehicle and the plane.

A BA spokesman stressed no-one was hurt in the incident, but admitted that an investigation would take place. He said: "There is a connection from the vehicle which goes into the aircraft and starts it. The connection from that vehicle got caught up in the propeller just before they were about to go.

"It was shortly before take-off - passengers have been put up in hotels.

"It certainly will be investigated by BA, and potentially, if it's serious enough, it might go beyond BA."

Last night, a spokesman for Aberdeen Airport admitted that there was no chance that passengers would be able to make their journey any earlier than this morning.

"BA will be making desperate efforts to get another aircraft to take these people to Manchester, but it won't be tonight," he said.

An ambulance service spokesman said: "We were called to the airport as a precaution, but when our crews got there, there were no casualties and no treatment was required."

Novel way to get rid of your Dash 8 fleet :uhoh:

Glad nobody injured.

Didn't hear it for myself last night,was on local news this morning.

Was pretty windy in ABZ last night,wonder if a gust caught the cable & blew it into the prop?

Mind you,not the first time it's been windy here.

Surely not?.. Bacx is calling in the A-Team?

Apparently the cable was being stowed in the ground power unit when it and the tug ran foward uncommanded! into the turning prop.

This maybe the first ground incident where the Health and Safety Executive will be the responsible authority rather than the CAA.

Whilst BA the ground handling contractor and British Airways Citiexpress the Operator will investigate the incident the HSE will have the final say.

CAP 642 although not mandatory will be being dusted off.

The ramp is a very dangerous place and this risk can only be managed by regular staff training. Cost cutters beware!

BACX have just renewed the leases on the Dash 8, however, they've been talking about becoming an "all jet operator" for years.

The gods must have a funny sense of humour.;)

Ah, those journos have done it again....the Dash only seats 50. Bless 'em. You've got to love them for trying.

But that means it would have been full and we all know BACX dont fill aeroplanes!!!:ooh:

ABZ Dash 8 incident
 

This reminds me of an incident at EDI in the early-mid
90s when an F27 ops by AirUK had an almost identical incident in which a ground vehicle was involved with the starboard prop upon starting via the use of a GPU. The incident however had a more serious outcome with the ground engineer being killed instantly. Although a slightly different lead up to the incident, both ground vehicles were (seem) to have been facing into the prop. Its my understanding that all ground vehicles should be parked accross the nose of the aircraft. When will we learn?

Anyone know which Dash 8 it was? There have been a few rather serious incidents involving Brymon/BACX Dash8s over the years... Cant afford to spare any more. The operation is a nightmare already - without the temporary loss of this aircraft.

tristar 500, are you suggesting they should only send 5 RJ100s (instead of 6) to Swiss at the end of the month?:}

Heard it was G-BRYW. Supposed to have taken that onwards to Belfast yesterday.

DOH!!

Didn't know the GPU cable was long enough to reach the prop. Obviously I'm missing something here....

re:

Didn't know the GPU cable was long enough to reach the prop. Obviously I'm missing something here....


BUT the prop didnt...:D :D

self manovering gpu, as the operator removed cable from aircraft , brakes failed and unit moved through prop arc which was turning in the feathered mode and ended up jammed on the fuselarge. prop is no longer in great shape, a number of dents in the fuselarge and an engine change.

Scary for the crew and passengers and the engineer on the outside, but not as bad as the ATP in Jersey a few years back

This reminds me of an incident involving an ATP which occurred at BHD some years ago. From what I remember, the a/c was taxying off the ramp when the port prop struck a piece of ground equipment. The prop ended up with all the composite fibre being stripped off and bits of it were found on top of the terminal building and hundreds of yards away across the Sydenham by-pass - pretty scary for all concerned.

The a/c lay at BHD for weeks after as apparently the damage sustained required a replacement engine.

Let's gloss over the minor fact that, unless the journo personally counted them, he was probably given this figure by an "informed" BACX spokesperson. Sounds to me like (again) the journos are being castigated for quoting the "experts" at the airline who don't seem to know what they're talking about...

But don't let the real facts get in the way...

Reminds me of the day of the JetBlue incident when cnn.com had 2 pages online on the topic, one quoting an FAA spokesperson "the A320 was dumping fuel" and the other (correctly) quoting the very same person "the A320 was circling to burn fuel".

citiexpress dash 8 hold 50 pax, 2 cabin crew, 2 flight crew

i used to operate on one

I understand the skipper was (as a matter of routine)breathalised after this incident. Now I don't have a problem with this, just seems a bit odd. Did they do the whole ground crew, hosties and ATC whilst they were at it? Just a thought.

its in our employment guide that all flight and cabin crew will be breathalised after an incident