British A350 collides with Emirates 777 in Dubai

A British Airways Airbus A350 collided with an Emirates 777 at Dubai International Airport, early today morning.

The two aircraft involved in the incident were:

  • A British Airways A350-1000 G-XWBA, which was the first A350 to join British Airways in July 2019.
  • Emirates Boeing 777-300ER A6-EBR, a 14-year-old aircraft delivered to Emirates in August 2006.

The British Airways aircraft was being pushed back to operate BA106 from Dubai to London. Details of the incident are not yet available, but it appears that the A350 was being pushed back and collided with the 777 which appears to be parked in a bay. The left horizontal stabilizers on both aircraft appear to have taken significant damage.

It is worth noting that with the ongoing coronavirus situation, many airports are very crowded with planes parked in every bay and on the taxiways.

British Airways A350s are having a rough entry to service

The A350 is the newest aircraft in the British Airways fleet, the airline only has five of the aircraft in the fleet. With this accident, two of British Airways A350s have now been involved in incidents. G-XWBD was delivered in December 2019 and has already had a few incidents:

  • In November 2019, it was damaged in a collision in the hanger, which delayed its delivery.
  • In January 2020, it had a hard landing in Tel Aviv and was taken out of service.
  • In February 2020, it had a hydraulic failure on approach to Toronto. The leak resulted in a minor fire and the aircraft could not taxi.
  • In February 2020, it had another hydraulic failure on approach to London Heathrow which resulted in a runway closure at the airport.

It will be interesting to see how long the aircraft is now grounded at Dubai airport, given the current situation and the damage to the aircraft, it will likely take some time to fix.

About Vedant Agarwal

A frequent flyer for both work and pleasure - Vedant has held elite status on many of the major alliances and airlines. Also an avid aviation photographer, his pictures have been published in and on the covers of many international publications.

Check Also

British Airways Boeing 777-200ER G-YMMU

Technical issue forces British Airways Bangalore flight to return to London

A British Airways Boeing 777-200ER registration G-YMMU, operating flight BA119 from London Heathrow to Bangalore …

+OK