Planes Collide on Tarmac at Heathrow Airport

Published: 07 April 2024 at 03:11

Travel

Two planes, an empty Virgin Atlantic 787 being towed and a British Airways Airbus A350, collided on the tarmac at Heathrow Airport causing minor wing damage. No passengers were on board the Virgin Atlantic plane, and no injuries were reported. Both airlines are conducting assessments and investigations into the incident without anticipations of ongoing airport operation impact.

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Virgin Atlantic Flight 024 (Wikipedia)

Virgin Atlantic Flight 024 was a regularly scheduled Virgin Atlantic passenger flight from Los Angeles, California, to London, United Kingdom. On 5 November 1997, the Airbus A340 operating the flight was forced to make an emergency landing in London Heathrow Airport after the left main landing gear didn't deploy. During the landing, the aircraft was damaged and later repaired. All 114 passengers and crew aboard survived, but 7 passengers were slightly injured during evacuation.

Virgin Atlantic fleet (Wikipedia)

Virgin Atlantic operates a fleet consisting exclusively of wide-body twinjet aircraft from both Airbus and Boeing.

Virgin Atlantic (Wikipedia)

Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, West Sussex, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and was originally planned by its co-founders Randolph Fields and Alan Hellary to fly between London and the Falkland Islands. Soon after changing the name to Virgin Atlantic Airways, Fields sold his shares in the company after disagreements with Richard Branson over the management of the company. The maiden flight from London–Gatwick to Newark took place on 22 June 1984.The airline along with Virgin Holidays is controlled by a holding company, Virgin Atlantic Limited, which is 51% owned by the Virgin Group and 49% by Delta Air Lines. It is administratively separate from other Virgin-branded airlines. Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited both hold Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Type A Operating Licences (AOC numbers 534 and 2435 respectively), both of which permit these airlines, operating as Virgin Atlantic Airways, to carry passengers, cargo and mail on aircraft with 20 or more seats.Virgin Atlantic uses a mixed fleet of Airbus and Boeing wide-body aircraft and operates to destinations in North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia from its main hub at London–Heathrow and its secondary hub at Manchester. The airline also operates a seasonal service from Edinburgh. Virgin Atlantic aircraft consist of three cabins: Economy, Premium (formerly Premium economy) and Upper Class (business).In July 2017, Virgin Atlantic announced its intention to form a joint venture with Air France–KLM, but in December 2019, it was announced that the joint venture would not include a stake in the company.On 5 May 2020, it was announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline would lay off 3,000 staff, reduce the fleet size to 35 by the summer of 2022, retire the Boeing 747-400s and would not resume operations from Gatwick following the pandemic.Virgin Atlantic filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in New York on 4 August 2020 as part of a £1.2 billion private refinancing package. The airline joined the SkyTeam airline alliance on 2 March 2023.

Virgin Atlantic flight to New York cancelled after passenger raises concerns about missing bolts on plane wing

A Virgin Atlantic flight from Manchester to New York was cancelled after a passenger raised concerns about missing bolts on one of the plane wings. The passenger spotted four missing fasteners during a safety briefing and informed the cabin crew. Engineers conducted maintenance checks and found that the tops of four out of the 119 fasteners on the wing panel were missing. Both Virgin Atlantic and Airbus confirmed that no passengers were at risk and the aircraft was safe to operate. The flight was cancelled to provide time for precautionary additional engineering checks.

Virgin Atlantic Little Red (Wikipedia)

Virgin Atlantic Little Red (also referred to as Virgin Little Red and Little Red) was a short-lived British domestic airline subsidiary owned by Virgin Atlantic.It was created in 2012 as a way to provide competition for aviation giant British Airways (BA) on UK domestic mainland flights to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, and Manchester from London Heathrow Airport. During its operation, the airline operated four Airbus A320s wet leased from Irish airline Aer Lingus and served a network of four domestic destinations. The airline ceased operations in 2015 following low passenger numbers.

Heathrow Airport (Wikipedia)

Heathrow Airport (), called London Airport until 1966 (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL), is the main international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others being Gatwick, City, Luton, Stansted and Southend). The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings, owned mostly by Ferrovial and Qatar Investment Authority and CDPQ. In 2022, it was the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic and the busiest airport in Europe in 2023. It is also the airport with the world's most international connections as of 2023.Heathrow was founded as a small airfield in 1929 but was developed into a much larger airport after World War II. It lies 14 miles (23 kilometres) west of Central London on a site that covers 4.74 square miles (12.3 square kilometres). It was gradually expanded over 75 years and now has two parallel east–west runways, four operational passenger terminals and one cargo terminal. The airport is the primary hub for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.