Narrative:An Asiana Airlines Airbus A330-323 (HL7792) and a THY Turkish Airlines Airbus A321-231 (TC-JMM) suffered substantial damage in a ground contact accident at Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport, Turkey.
The Airbus A321 had arrived from Ercan as flight TK969 and turned towards Gate 217 at Terminal A at 14:47 UTC. The aircraft stopped meters before the intended parking position at the gate because the flight crew noticed a traffic cone was in the way.
At the same time the Airbus A330 had commenced taxiing along taxiway G to the runway. Asiana flight 552 was returning to Seoul, South Korea. While taxiing past the A321, the right hand wing tip impacted the vertical stabilizer.
The A321's vertical stabilizer was knocked over entirely and the A330's wing tip sustained serious damage.
Probable Cause:
POSSIBLE CAUSE:
As the probable cause of the accident that resulted in the wing tip of the Airbus 330-300 type aircraft with the registration mark HL7792 making the Istanbul-Seoul flight hitting the tail of the THY aircraft;
- The TC-JMM cockpit crew, while focusing on foreign objects in the parking area and TGS personnel, lost situational awareness that the aircraft violated the G taxiway and did not report this situation to the ATC unit,
- While the HL7792 crew should be performing taxi procedures, they cannot focus on the taxiway and make the wing separation,
- TGS personnel not complying with the rules and regulations in the Ground Operations Manual (GOM),
As a result of the joint evaluation of the above issues, it is thought that the accident occurred due to the human factor.
Accident investigation:
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Investigating agency: | UEIM Turkey  |
Status: | Investigation completed |
Accident number: | final report | Download report: | Final report
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Classification:
Ground collision
Damaged on the ground
Photos

taxi route prior to the ground contact
Video, social media
Map
This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. The line between the airports does
not display the exact flight path.
Distance from Istanbul-Atatürk International Airport to Seoul-Incheon International Airport as the crow flies is 7882 km (4926 miles).
Accident location: Exact; deduced from official accident report.
This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Network’s opinion as to the cause of the accident. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time.