British Airways 787 Dreamliner collapses as nose gear gives way
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A maintenance error may have caused a British Airways 787-8 Dreamliner jet to collapse on its nose at London’s Heathrow Airport Friday morning June 18. The plane was being readied for a cargo flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
According to reports, the front landing gear, beneath the pilot’s cabin, gave way not while the plane was taxiing on the runway or being pushed back, but while it was parked on the tarmac at stand 583. There were no passengers on board, but according to the Daily Mail, medics treated several people on the scene for injuries.
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Authorities from the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation division are looking into it, but sources told the Daily Mail that the accident occurred because an engineer failed to lock out the nose gear properly.
Video and photos of the plane on the runway after it collapsed quickly surfaced on Twitter thanks to several #AVGeeks, including these posts by @MZulqarnainBut1:
This video posted by @Train_planehub indicates there was substantial damage to the bottom of the aircraft:
This particular 787-8 Dreamliner plane had been converted from passenger jet to a cargo transport. It had last flown on Wednesday, landing at Heathrow from Moscow.
British Airways says the incident is not impacting any of their other flights in and out of Heathrow. Still, the plane looks to be damaged enough to be out of commission for a good while as they try to repair it.
Both British Airways and Boeing already have many issues to deal with. For BA, nearly 12,000 jobs have been lost in the past 15 months due to the chaos the pandemic has inflicted on the travel industry. Boeing, meanwhile, has only recently begun to get its 737 MAX jets back in the air after two deadly crashes.
Featured Image by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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