We had settled in, I was talking to the guy sitting next to me who was flying out to drive home a car he had bought without seeing. The plane started to push back from the gate and it went thud. It felt like we had backed over a trash can or something. The plane pulled forward a few feet, backed up again and this time I could hear metal tearing. We came to a stop, the pilot came out of the cockpit, opened the door and charged off shouting "what in the hell have you done to my airplane!"
It took a couple of minutes for the flight attendants to assess what was going on, and make a call to the terminal.
What had happened?
We had backed into another airplane, twice.
We would need to get off the plane while the damage was assessed. As I got off, I looked over and the end one wing was torn loose and hanging down. It didn't take long for the airline to say, please go stand in line at customer service for rebooking.
I was flown to an airport, about 90 miles from where I headed, put on a chartered van and driven onto the airport. Several hours late, I did arrive home that day.
Reversing cameras needed, I think.
ReplyDeleteA great idea.
DeleteAnymore...its why I get nervous about flying. It seems to lax and the attention to detail and procedure and operation seems like it's got to non-chalant these days.it seems every other day there is some airplane accident or near miss story being reported.
ReplyDeleteThis was US Air, a good number of years ago.
DeleteAnd I thought staying aloft was the problem!
ReplyDeleteAnd avoiding sudden stops, the sudden stops are the real killers.
DeleteI had a similar encounter in DC flying home to SC when the plane backed away from the gate and stopped suddenly losing all power; we sat in that tin can on a hot runway, no air and no lights, no nothing, until they could get it fixed, move us back to the gate and get us off to find other ways home.
ReplyDeleteDC can be a little warm on a summer day.
DeletePlanes that go thud. That's a little unnerving!
ReplyDeleteI have a few more stories.
DeleteI wonder if someone lost their job because of that. Sounds scary!
ReplyDeleteThe ground crew was short handed, probably should have not tried the push back.
DeleteThat's one of those experiences you will never forget. I thought those guys with the orange wands were supposed to prevent that from happening.
ReplyDeleteThe Orange Vest guy on that side, didn't show up.
DeleteI wonder why your pilot didn't look in his wing mirrors before reversing!
ReplyDeleteThat would have been my last flight.
ReplyDeleteJust hate when that happens.
ReplyDelete