A380 Bang

Here's a great reason to ALWAYS wear a seat belt on a plane even when its stationery on the ground. I cant believe how many seat belts I hear being opened seconds after a plane lands.

Have you seen the video where the Air France A380 jet at  New York's John F. Kennedy airport hits the tail section of a Bombardier CRJ 700 Regional Jet? The smaller plane spins a quarter turn on the taxiway!

The A380 was operating Air France Flight 7 to Paris and was taxing to take off. It had 495 passengers and 25 crew members on board.

Its left wingtip struck the tail of Comair Flight 6293, which had just landed from Boston and was taxiing to its gate at Kennedy. The Comair  had 62 passengers and four crew members on board.

There were no reports of injuries.

Both planes were inspected Tuesday,  pilots and crew  interviewed and ground radar checked.


The Airbus "super jumbo", the world's largest jetliner has a wingspan of almost 80 meters (yards). About a third of a metre of the Air France left wing appears to be damaged. Air France said the damage was only "material". I hope so.

So who was at fault? The airbus has only been flying to JFK since Nov. 20, 2009. Lufthansa also flies the A380 into JFK since February, 2011. So the airport is still getting used to them. Check out my  review of the Emirates A380 comparing it to the Qantas and Singapore A380s. I have yet to fly the Lufthansa and Air France planes. Hope to do them in the second half of 2011. 

NTSB Photos of Wing Clipping at JFK Airport



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