A350 incident at EFHK
 

Anyone got any pics of the minor incident where a Finnair A350 stopped itself by using the left engine and an airbridge?

Here you go:

http://www.airlive.net/alert-finnair...sinki-airport/

Who hit who?

Were the engines running? was the A/C on the chocks? Did they have a painted stop mark on the tarmac?

The bridge certainly didn't hit the aeroplane. It (the bridge) is concreted to the spot. The American fleet verses the Lighthouse comes to mind...

Yeah I hate those fixed aerobridges that just jump out at ya........g;)

Was the Stand Guidance System not working?

Nobody to press the stop button?

No Marshaller?

Article from 2015

Helsinki Airport to be the first home airport for Airbus A350 in Europe
On 7 October 2015, Helsinki Airport will become the first European airport to act as a home airport for the Airbus A350 XWB aircraft. The new aircraft boosts the future growth of the airport.

“The arrival of the A350 is a great thing for us because we are the first European airport to act as a home airport for the new aircraft,” says Ville Haapasaari, Director of Helsinki Airport at Finavia.

“The arrival of the A350 is a great thing for us because we are the first European airport to act as a home airport for the new aircraft.”
The airport is ready for the nearly 300-seat aircraft. Some renovation has been done on the two oldest passenger bridges, but no other modifications have been necessary.

“New types of aircraft do not cause any major challenges or modification needs because we are constantly keeping good care of our airport and developing it at all times. Everything is ready and we are eagerly awaiting for the plane to arrive,” says Heini Noronen-Juhola, Vice President of Helsinki Airport at Finavia.

The Airbus A350 has visited Helsinki Airport once before, in summer 2014. Now, the new aircraft will be parked and connected to a passenger bridge for the first time.

This is also the largest Airbus model which will be parked at a bridge at Helsinki Airport.

“The parking of all aircraft must abide by the safety rules. Parking is regulated in great detail. When, for example, a new type of aircraft is connected to a passenger bridge for the first time, its docking guidance system must always be calibrated separately. This is extremely detailed work,” Noronen-Juhola says.

Oops...:confused:

Human error perhaps but you seem to be implying it was the crew's fault. Although the captain is ultimately responsible, it might not have been his fault. Can you see L2 from your cockpit? I presume you're being sarcastic?

STP

That's a strange dent. It may be the picture is misleading, but it looks like the aircraft was nosed down by severe braking, then rose up when stopped, pushing the cowling into the airbridge from underneath.

PFP

That is probably correct. Severe braking does compress the nose wheel oleo and the nose dips as it comes to a stop. Just the same as a car suspension dips under severe braking.

With a fixed bridge, there can only be two causes: the aircraft didn't stop when it was supposed to or the guidance stop point was incorrect. That has gone waayyy over the stop point.

Or the automated guidance was faulty. Or the marshaller didn't give the correct signal. Or the brakes were faulty at an inconvenient time. Yes it's gone way over the stop point but at this stage we can't possibly say why. I'm going to wait to find out what happened rather than speculate. :ok:

STP

Link to another view of the damage after the A350 has been moved back...

https://twitter.com/FlightAlerts777/...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

I did say "or the guidance stop point was incorrect"...

“The aircraft moved slightly after parking, for a reason that is at this stage unknown, and engine 1 touched the passenger bridge. The speed was very low, and no passengers or crew were injured in this situation. There was some damage to the engine and hence the aircraft is now out of operation and being repaired,” a Finnair spokesperson told ATW.

The twitter picture (arguably) suggests that there were two impacts: the first in a conventional impact with the girder of the airbridge which damaged the inlet cowl, and the second from above which damaged the top of the fan cowl. The pattern of cracking of the fan cowl does not suggest a lateral impact.

So the mechanism would be that the aircraft was moving, hit the airbridge, braking was applied, the nose dipped as PFP suggests, then rose back up for a second impact.

"The aircraft moved slightly after parking". Nice try. The pictures suggest otherwise: that it hit the airbridge before it stopped.

True but I wrongly assumed you were referring to the painted line rather than the automated guidance. Apologies :ok:

STP

It's perfectly possible that the aircraft stopped in the correct position and subsequently moved forward again causing it to strike the airbridge, which would make the Finnair statement correct.

I don't get that from the Twitter photo, in fact I'm not sure what distinction you are making between the "inlet cowl" and "fan cowl". The damage shown could well have resulted from a single impact (Occam).

Twitter says the plane is back in service - the repair must have been pretty quick!

Most inlet cowls are only held on by a handful of bolts and are easily swapped out.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/d...20991z0052.gif

As indicated on the Southwest 737! :)