Ryanair Planes Collide: One Wing Ripped Off, One Wing Impaled

This morning two Ryanair planes collided on a runway at Dublin Airport as they were taxiing. The wings of the planes clipped each other, leading to the tip of one being ripped off as it impaled the other.

Glenn Jordan, who was on one of the planes with his wife, told Irish Times, that there was “quite a loud bang” and that the sound was followed by a rocking motion.

“It was almost like going over a pothole in a car,” he said. “Then it went silent and the planes rocked for a couple of seconds…. People were remarkably good natured about it. Some started cracking jokes, they took it in good spirit.”

Andrea Cunningham, from the other of the two planes, told RTE Morning Ireland, “I thought the planes were going a little bit too fast before the planes were taking off. You could feel the plane tug and then we stopped. We were on the planes for about an hour, maybe short of an hour.”

Others indicated that the majority of the passengers on the planes were calm and that none of the passengers were injured.

One passenger filmed the damage to the wing on his phone. You can see, in the footage, where the tip of one of the planes has come off and impaled the other plane’s wing. The Ryanair logo seems to be cut in half by the accident.

Ryanair issued a statement about the collision.

“Two of our aircraft were taxiing slowly to the runway at Dublin Airport this morning. The winglet of one aircraft appears to have scraped the tail of the other. Both aircraft were under the instruction of Dublin Airport Air Traffic Control at the time. There was no impact on customers on board and Ryanair contacted the IAA and worked with them to return both aircraft to stand. Affected customers disembarked, were provided with refreshment vouchers and boarded two replacement aircraft, which departed to Brussels Charleroi and Edinburgh later this morning. Ryanair apologises sincerely to customers for any inconvenience. Both aircraft are being repaired by Ryanair engineers and will be returned to service shortly.”

Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair Chief Marketing Officer, stated that “passengers need not be concerned about safety.”

Jacobs added that Ryanair has had an impeccable safety record throughout the last 29 years and that with 1,600 flights per day, there was bound to be at least a minor accident.

Dublin Airport tweeted that the airport is fully operational now.

Some delays this morning as a result of an earlier ground incident, airport fully operational.

— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) October 7, 2014

[Image courtesy of Veooz]