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| Date: | Monday 14 September 1992 |
| Time: | 11:50 |
| Type: |  Airbus A300B4-203 |
| Owner/operator: | Alitalia |
| Registration: | I-BUSL |
| MSN: | 173 |
| Year of manufacture: | 1982 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 264 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Minor, repaired |
| Location: | London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Pushback / towing |
| Nature: | Passenger - Scheduled |
| Departure airport: | London-Heathrow Airport (LHR/EGLL) |
| Investigating agency: | AAIB |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
When the aircraft arrived on stand G12, the dispatcher had attempted to maneuver the B bridge onto the most forward cabin door but the bridge would not reach and had stopped in a position where the entrance was several feet clear from the aircraft's side and slightly forward of the door's position. The dispatcher then went to the A bridge and successfully maneuvered that on to the second door aft on the left side to allow passengers to disembark and later to embark.
Clearance to push-back was requested by the flight crew at 1150 hrs UTC in order to make good a
take-off slot time of 1206 hrs. On completion of the turn-around the door was closed and then,
because the auxiliary power unit was unserviceable, the right engine was started on stand. Before
push-back was due to commence, the same dispatcher attempted to remove the A bridge from the door but it would not retract. He telephoned the British Airports Authority (BAA) and reported the defect but, because the bridge was still in contact with the aircraft, he was reminded that no help would be available from the BAA engineers until the bridge was no longer in contact. He removed his key from the control panel in the cab of the bridge, went down to the apron and prepared to retract it manually. After releasing the extension/retraction motor brakes using the same key, he began to wind the bridge wheels backwards using a hand-wheel provided for this purpose. He found the task arduous but the group leader in charge of the apron loading team came to his assistance and took over the task of winding back the bridge. To escape the noise of the idling engine, the dispatcher then went to sit in his car leaving his keys in the A bridge brake release switch.
The group leader wound the A bridge back a distance estimated by the ground engineer in-charge to be between 15 and 20 centimeters. The group leader then left the A bridge without removing the key or re-setting any of the bridge standby controls in order to move the air starter which was parked on the other side of the aircraft. From his position in the tractor's cab, the tractor driver was unable to see the clearance between the B bridge and the aircraft and he waited until the ground engineer signaled to him to push the aircraft. The tractor driver stated that during the push-back he attempted to increase separation between the A bridge and the aircraft by moving the tractor gently to the right but, after about 10 feet of travel, the ground engineer who was on his right side, instructed him to stop. The engineer then instructed the tractor-driver to re-position the aircraft on the stand so that the passengers could be disembarked.
During push-back the corner of the floor of the A bridge had made contact with the fuselage. This
resulted in a heavy witness mark along the aircraft's side at floor level, just forward of the No 2 door,
which locally deformed the skin and underlying frames. The damaged area was some five feet in
length and culminated in a skin tear approximately fifteen inches long and two to three inches across.
It was reported at the time by the dispatcher that the A bridge had rolled forward as the aircraft began to push back.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f4e440f0b613420004c5/Airbus_Industrie_A.300_B4-203__I-BUSL_01-93.pdf
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9764448 (Photo)
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Apr-2025 14:23 | Justanormalperson | Added |
| 15-Apr-2025 14:24 | ASN | Updated [Accident report, ] |
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