Edinburgh Tug Accident

[Leezyjet]

Hopefully a lesson learned by some other members of the f/deck community who are constantly pushing ground crews to work faster - and often not in the nicest manner either. Believe it or not, most of us on the ground do actually know what we're doing and we are constantly having to work with poor equipment/facilities/lack of man power etc. and we can only do so much with what we have before it becomes dangerous. We don't go into the f/deck during flight telling you guys to hurry up, do this, do that so a bit of mutual respect will go alot further than barking orders and throwing weight around which actually has the opposite effect !!.

Most of you guys are good as gold, just a few bad pennies still out there who may actually think twice now before shouting from the ivory tower !!.

[GBALU53]

Ammend operating procedures?

Not the first time this has happened.
An Air U.K. FK27 at Aberdeen many years ago had a similar one with a GPU the driver drove the GPU into the prop and lost his life.
A BAE748 of Channel Airways down in Jersey many years ago did the same as the MNG, started to Taxy before the all clear, prop strikes GPU.
Are these happening due commercial pressure?
Not enough gound handles to do the start up?

From reading into these types of accidents GPU operating procedures should be ammended when aircraft are not on nose in stand parking, before someone gets injured or there is loss of life.

[JW411]

The Air UK F-27 fatal accident was at EDI and not at ABZ. I knew the chap concerned when he was a ground engineer with BAe at PIK. It was a hell of a way to leave the planet.

[amber 1]

Witnessed a Viscount taxi his no. 2 engine into the GPU at LSI in the mid 70's. Quite spectacular as bits of GPU sprayed all over the field. Heard the Skipper admit afterwards that he'd been in a bit of a hurry!

[757_Driver]

Where is Rainboe to pass comment on this accident?

He had plenty to say on the Astraeus incident at Gatwick which he blamed an inept tug driver for. So hopefully he will be on here soon to show that he is a reasonable man after all, and he'll berate the pilot for some very shoddy work with unemployment as a suggested result.

Doubt we'll see him though.

hardly a fair comparison as the flystar 737 at LGW was under tow with no flight crew, or indeed any flystar personel at all on board - so its difficult to see whom else to blame it probably wasn't the aircrafts fault and it probably wasn't the tugs fault adn there's only one other person involved!
Whereas this was clearly an event in an 'operational' environment.
I'm not going to sling mud, but I doubt the captain would have taxied if he didn't think he was clear and I doubt the ground crew would have given any signals if it wasn't clear, so obviously a breakdown in communication or situational awareness of some sort, and a lesson learned for everybody.

[groundhogbhx]

The thing that springs into my mind is that if the Captain was in that much of a hurry to go 1. were the brakes actually set to park and 2. was the isolating lever for the pneumatics in. The result of number 2 could be little or no brake pressure even if the park brake is set, depending on how long it had been parked and how badly the system leaks.

The out come of this could have been very different if the poor chap on ground power duty had been walking round to his cab at the time!!!

[RampTramp]

Taxiing before everything is clear is more common than you would think, it isn't, normally, so serious so doesn't hit the headlines. Frightens the h*ll out of the ground staff though!

I know of one major EU airline that uses one man push on towbarless tractors and has had multiple incidents over the past couple of years, luckily without major damage or injury.

I know well the pressures of OTP but please, everyone, if you haven't received the thumbs up & seen the pin - don't move!

RT

[tristar500]

Aircraft is currently being repaired by MNG Cargo employees at the GAT - Edinburgh Airport.

[Atreyu]

I think alot of the GPU's at EDI are in such a bad state of repair anyway that a wee bit of gaffer tape probably had that one hooked up later on

Or am I just being cynical? (just kidding aviance!):P

Atreyu

[Porrohman]

Aircraft is currently being repaired by MNG Cargo employees at the GAT - Edinburgh Airport.

It's now parked east of runway 12/30, and is still minus an engine (or two?). It looks like the fuselage was damaged by debris during the incident; http://www.airliners.net/photo/MNG-Kargo/Fokker-F-27-500-Friendship/1355035/L/&tbl=photo_info&photo_nr=1&prev_id=&next_id=1323748

Possibly beyond economic repair? Or maybe the insurance companies for the parties involved are arguing over who pays the bill?

[Busbert]

"Almost the end of a beautiful Friendship"

[tristar500]

Aircraft sitting parked, minus the starboard engine. Been there for quite a few months now. Initially, a few Turkinsh engineers came over and did some work on the aircraft while it was parked at the GAT, but the work stopped and the aircraft was towed to where it is now.

[x933]

Is there an accident report kicking around anywhere?

[Hooligan Bill]

Originally Posted by tristar500

Aircraft sitting parked, minus the starboard engine. Been there for quite a few months now. Initially, a few Turkinsh engineers came over and did some work on the aircraft while it was parked at the GAT, but the work stopped and the aircraft was towed to where it is now.

Now minus leading edges as well. Seems to be having usable parts salvaged.

[tristar500]

Looks as though shes being broken up now. Saw her today minus rudder and various panels. The nose cone has gone also...