A340-600 destroyed



Above is the plane at bottom right in October.


Airbus calls it an accident - which it clearly must have been. The airline was meant to take delivery in 8 days - that's not going to happen. Judging from this picture, the hull is a write off. The nose is sheared off. Who would want this one repaired? Amazingly, 5 people were injured - no fatalities. One would expect those sitting in the flight deck to be really badly hurt. Of the 9 people on the plane, 7 were from Etihad - which kind of compounds the damage.

Coming so soon after the glory at Dubai, Airbus must be in deep depression over this. It is a most unfortunate accident and the investigation will find somebody to blame.
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Do you think someone lost a job over this bit?????

Here's the story:

New A340-600 in ground accident at Toulouse
A brand new A340-600 aircraft in was badly damaged when it ran through a blast barrier at the Airbus Saint-Martin facility at Toulouse, France. There were no fatalities, but five people were injured. The accident happened late on the afternoon of November 15, 2007.

The aircraft, which was painted in Etihad Airways livery, was undergoing pre-delivery tests on the ground at the Airbus facility at the time of the accident. According to a news release issued today by Airbus, engine-run-ups were being carried out on the A340-600, MSN 856, which was due to be delivered to Etihad in just a few days.

At the time of the accident, there were nine people on board the aircraft, including two Airbus staff, and seven employees of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT). Five of those nine people were injured, but as of today only the two Airbus employees and one ADAT employee remained hospitalized. None of their injuries are reported to be life-threatening.

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/flightblogger/2007/11...severely-damage.html

This makes two A340-600 hull-losses in a week, the first being from Iberia (ran off a runway) and this ground-test accident.

If it ain't Boeing, I ain't going...

Can't wait to see how the A380 Pork-o-liner shakes out during it's first year in service!