Wingtip kisses at NAIA

As Qatar and Delta scrape its others wing

By Anjo Perez
September 21, 2011

MANILA, Philippines -- The left wingtip of a Qatar Airways plane scraped the right wingtip of a Delta Air aircraft while pushing back out of the terminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport a little past midnight Wednesday (12:40am), causing delays to both flights.

Officials from the airport’s Media Affairs Division (MAD) revealed that the tug operator pushing back the Qatar Air Airbus Industrie A330 wide-body jet miscalculated the distance between the Delta Airlines Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet parked to its side resulting in the wingtips to touch one another.

The Qatar Airways aircraft, which was parked at Bay 14 of the NAIA, was pushing back for departure at 12:40 am when the plane’s left winglet scraped the six-foot high right winglet of the B747-400 jet.

The contact resulted in minor scratches to both wingtips that forced the pilot of the Qatar flight to return to the terminal. For safety reasons, the pilot had the passengers disembark from the aircraft while maintenance crew checked on the involved part and make sure its airworthiness.

After an extensive check of the aircraft, the plane was given the go ahead signal by the maintenance crew to continue with its flight was able to take off from the NAIA at 5:01am Wednesday.

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