Two Virgin Australia airplanes have suffered minor damage after clipping wings on the tarmac at Hobart Airport earlier this morning.
At around 10:00am, the tow Boeing 737-800s were preparing to push back from their respective gates. The first plane, a Sydney-bound flight, pushed back as the second, a Melbourne-bound flight scheduled to depart at 10:30am, was conducting boarding procedure.
As the Sydney plane turned, one of its wings clipped the rear stabilising tail fin of the stationary Melbourne plane, causing minor damage to both.
Passengers on both flights, all of whom were uninjured in the incident, reported hearing and feeling an “almighty shudder” as the planes made contact, which flight crew on the Melbourne flight initially attributed to a large gust of wind before the cause of the incident became apparent.
Virgin officials later confirmed the planes had made “light contact,” and that there was no safety risk to passengers, flight crew, or ground staff as a result.
Passengers were offloaded from the two flights, which were immediately grounded, with some taking photos of the quite obvious damage to the wing of the offending plane.
This photo of the clipped wing at Hobart airport came via @kim_napier5 @RichardMBaines pic.twitter.com/D8KCyVt0pf
— Alex Johnston (@swegen31) December 7, 2016
That plane won’t be going anywhere fast. Amazing Hobart Airport is quietest capital city airport in Oz #avgeekhttps://t.co/kojuAuXX38 pic.twitter.com/hdzNHrQRQh
— Paul Jenks (@jenkspl64) December 7, 2016
Inside the terminal, passengers seemed in good spirits about the whole ordeal, if not a little miffed as to how something like this could happen in what is otherwise a reasonably quiet airport.
How’s that last bloke!
“But the good part about it is I’ve been in a plane crash and I survived.“
Champion.
Hobart Airport officials suggested there may be slight delays this afternoon as a result of the incident, but Virgin insists any delays would be minimal due to adequate back-up planes being available.
Source: ABC News.
Photo: Twitter.
