Copenhagen Airport has recently witnessed a ground collision between two aircraft.
On Tuesday, May 23rd, Air Greenland's one and only Airbus A330-800 hit an SAS aircraft while being
towed to a hangar for overnight maintenance. Let’s look at this incident in today’s video.
In the incident, one of the wings of the all-red Airbus A330neo was damaged. According to local
reports, after all the passengers and the crew deboarded the aircraft, the handling company
Aviator towed the Airbus A330neo to one of the airport's hangars. However, something must have
gone wrong, and one of the wings of the relatively new Airbus A330neo hit the SAS aircraft.
After the incident, Air Greenland decided to ground the aircraft until at least Saturday,
May 27th. During the grounding period, the airline was in talks with aircraft manufacturer, Airbus,
to find the quickest solution to fix the damage so that the
aircraft would be able to return to the skies as soon as possible.
According to Air Greenland, the airline has been working tirelessly to avoid
disruptions for customers traveling between Denmark and Greenland.
The airline’s one A330-800 has really only been deployed regularly on one route:
The roughly four and a half hour flight between Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and Copenhagen, Denmark.
On occasion, the aircraft will also fly between Pituffik and Copenhagen as well.
The airline worked to find a substitute aircraft for the flights scheduled for May 26th through
27th. FlightRadar24.com data showed that a 737-800 from an airline named Jettime
was deployed, as well as a Boeing 777-200ER operated by a carrier named Privilege Style.
The relatively new and rare Airbus A330-800, is registered OY-GKN. It was delivered to
the airline on December 6th, 2022 and features the latest generation Rolls-Royce Trent 7000,
capable of reducing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 25% compared to
the previous generation Airbus A330ceo. The aircraft has a total capacity of 305
passengers and features two cabin classes. The premium section seats 42 customers,
while the standard economy cabin welcomes up to 263 passengers.
The brand new Airbus A330neo, named Tuukkaq, also features the Airbus signature Airspace cabin,
which provides enhanced comfort, including more personal space, larger overhead bins,
a new lighting system, an updated entertainment system, and WiFi connection.
The damaged Airbus A330-800 replaced the carrier's former Airbus A330-200ceo.
With this widebody being the carrier’s largest - and in fact, only jet aircraft,
it represents a significant capacity and capability loss to the carrier.
Given the fact that there are only seven A330-800s flying with airlines,
the shorter A330neo is extremely rare compared to other aircraft flying around
the world. As the first A330-800s were delivered in October 2020, this recent
Air Greenland incident may very well be the first accident to strike this aircraft variant.
What do you think is the main cause of ground collisions at airports? Let us know by
clicking on the comment button below!