Heathrow Airport: Two planes in minor collision | Hacker News Reader

Heathrow Airport: Two planes in minor collision

bbc.com

47 pointsshifty123 comments

https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/heathrow-cra...

"Two airplanes have hit into each other on the runway at Heathrow Airport this evening (Wednesday, September 28). The nature of the incident was not clear at first, but witnesses report that the wings of two planes hit into each other. It is not believed to be a serious incident."

Maybe @dang could replace the link with that one, the linked one doesn't seem to be handling the load well.

Also in the Icelandic state news: https://www.ruv.is/frett/2022/09/28/vel-icelandair-lenti-i-a...

BBC News has a better article:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63069004

Ok, we'll change to that from https://www.airlive.net/breaking-two-planes-collided-on-grou.... Thanks!

oopsy daisy

Guaranteed there’s going to be an SNL skit about this one.

Probably not serious enough to discuss. Planes clip random things – and each other – while taxiing at airports all the time.

That’s just blatantly false. Every time a plane takes damage they have to do a full analysis of similar damage and flightworthiness. The people on call to do this aren’t cheap and great caution is taken in the procedures of moving planes to avoid damage of all natures.

It is actually far from being that common.

No, it’s quite common. Planes collide on the ground all the time, at airports all over the world. Normally minor “oops” in ground handling, by the pilots but also can be pushers and such who are ferrying around airplanes. Runway entrance and exits are particularly hazardous and are marked that way.

You need to provide data behind this claim.

Not only you need major mistakes by multiple people and systems for two planes to touch while taxing, but two planes colliding even in an apparently minor way is enough to ground the planes for controls.

> Normally minor “oops” in ground handling

There is absolutely nothing minor or common about a collision of airliners on a runway at a major airport.

Similar mistakes have resulted in serious incidents. There will be a full investigation of this.

What happens after, does the plane still fly? Are planes engineered to withstand this?

I imagine there's a good chance that the plane could fly after this, but aviation is (rightfully) risk averse and expect it'll have a pass a full inspection before being cleared for flight again.

There is zero chance they're flying immediately after this.

Depends on how much of the wing has buckled.

If it's just a wingtip Boeing sends a AOG (Airplane On Ground) team to repair it onsite. They remove the wing skin replace any ribs, spars, wiring, lighting, etc, that are damaged, before riveting a new skin over it.

But.. uncommon enough that people should care about it world wide each time it happens? If this happened at my nearest airport, I would expect to see it in the local paper. I definitely wouldn't expect people more than a couple hundred miles away from me to hear about it.

Really? That's absolute madness. Any more info?

FAA search page for incidents: https://www.asias.faa.gov/apex/f?p=100:12:::NO:::

List of incidents in the past 10 days: https://www.asias.faa.gov/apex/f?p=100:93:::NO:::

Thanks for the link.

By my reading, of the 8 incidents reported in the last 10 days for Airbus and Boeing aircraft, 7 were collisions with birds and one was:

> AIRCRAFT LANDED AND POST FLIGHT INSPECTION REVEALED DAMAGE TO RIGHT LANDING GEAR AND FLAPS, HOUSTON, TX.

Nothing about two planes colliding on a runway.

There haven't been many recently.

Airbus/Boeing accidents while taxing:

https://www.asias.faa.gov/apex/f?p=100:11:::NO:::

2021: 1

20210220001669I - ON TAXI OUT FROM THE DE-ICE PAD THE RIGHT WING STRUCK AN IMPROPERLY PLACED DE-ICE TRUCK

2020: 1

20201220018589I - SUSTAINED RIGHT WINGTIP DAMAGE FROM STRIKING A LIGHT POLE

2019 - 4 ...

20190729005662I - G-CKWE STRUCK N819AN?S RIGHT WINGTIP WITH THEIR RIGHT WINGTIP

20190610006432I - ASAA STRUCK THE RIGHT HORIZONTAL STABILIZER OF THE PARKED EMBRAER 175 WITH THEIR LEFT WINGLET

20190418002979I - THE AIRCRAFT STRUCK A RUNWAY EDGE LIGHT

They can get pretty funny. The first one I clicked into was "ingested snowbank and a light"

almost all of these are non-commercial; all but 1 of the commercial incidents from the past 10 days are due to striking birds in flight, and nothing with airport taxiing

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