Qantas aircraft has windscreen smashed in after collision with aerobridge at Brisbane Airport
Qantas are dealing with another serious incident after one of their passenger jets had its windscreen smashed in during a collision with an aerobridge at Brisbane airport on Wednesday evening.
The flight had touched down after arriving from Queenstown in New Zealand and somehow misjudged its alignment with the aerial walkway before crashing into the entrance and wedging the aircraft under the bridge.
Multiple images shared on Facebook showed ground crew scrambling to assess the damage and passengers being moved off the aircraft via stairs onto the tarmac as the plane remained stalled.
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The Boeing 737-800 flight named QF186 had landed just after 6.30pm and could not be moved until all of the passengers had disembarked. Qantas confirmed no-one was injured in the incident.
“We’re investigating how an aerobridge made contact with the front of one of our aircraft at Brisbane Airport,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
“The aircraft will be inspected by engineers in Brisbane and repaired before returning to service.”
Australia’s national carrier is dealing with a range of recent incidents, including two pilots being taken ill while at the controls of separate flights.
Qantas confirmed this week that a trainee pilot passed out while at the controls of a Boeing 737 passenger jet carrying 121 people on June 10.
QF804 en route from Canberra to Sydney had touched down at Sydney Airport when the pilot became distressed and lost consciousness whilst taxiing toward the allocated terminal jet bridge.
Experienced pilots in the cabin were forced to take control of the aircraft as the trainee reported they were feeling unwell, and applied the brakes on the plane just prior to the medical episode.
The flight carrying 113 passengers and eight crew members, including the three pilots, was safely steered toward the T3 gate after the supervising check captain took control of the situation and adhered to the Qantas training procedures.
The aircraft taxied safely to the gate, where medical staff arrived on board shortly after passengers began disembarking and treated the incapacitated pilot.
Earlier this year Qantas flight QF505, the crew aboard a Boeing 737-800 flying from Brisbane to Sydney reported that one of the pilots was experiencing a serious medical issue whilst the plane was airborne.
That particular flight was carrying 127 passengers and six crew members when the captain experienced chest pains.
The first officer was already handling the controls in that instance and remained in command throughout the emergency.
Flight attendants attached an onboard defibrillator to the pilot, but it was not used, while the first officer contacted Sydney Air Traffic Control and issued a PAN call.
