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Pictures: Baggage Loading Vehicle Hits a Brand-New Condor A330neo at Frankfurt International
FRANKFURT — A baggage loading vehicle collided with a Condor Airbus A330-900 type passenger plane at Frankfurt Aiport. Serious damage occurred to the body of the German carrier's brand-new plane. (www.airlinerwatch.com) More...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
I was recently at Haneda and was watching the ground ops while waiting on my flight. I was watching a rampie positioning his loader. Before every operation he would do his 360 check and point at everything he needed to look at. I’ve also noticed this same behavior with bus drivers, train conductors and such.
It's called "pointing and calling" and is used by many aspect of Japanese business and industry to help prevent accidents. It's quite effective when utilized correctly.
The A330-900neo is much the same as the A330-300 but has an additional ten pax seats. This 330 will have to be repaired starting with the interior damage and substructure, then repairs to the outer skin. There will be no temporary “tape” for this level of damage. This is two weeks of repairs at best including structural inspections. The down time alone is worth millions. This plane will wear these scars for the duration of its life and will be a permanent inclusion in the aircraft’s maintenance records. No bandaid repair here!
I wish I could say that I had never heard of this before, but it is way too common! I have seen way too many items like this that were 100% preventable... 2 Key causes that I see is 1.) Lack Of Training, 2.) Complacency, and 3.) Lack of Training.
4.) Hiring incompetent workers
To be honest, many of them are experienced... I saw a CRJ taxied up under the wing of a DC9 and fractured the wing spar... Forgot to follow the checklist and failed to turn on Hydraulics. He did set the brakes, but no pressure due to pumps off.. Started the first engine and started rolling (did not realize it... Just as the 2nd engine fired off, they hit the DC9! The Biggest Failure is failure to follow the Check List... Both were fired!
Add to the list number 5) terrible ERONOMICS for driver of the baggage loader. Look at the photo in the article. NO driver's seat in the picture. Seems like the driver must stand up and operate accelerator and brake pedal with their feet. Without excusing the driver - this vehicle design is NEGLIGENT
Equity, man, Equity!