A Lufthansa Airbus collided with a vehicle in Salzburg. It then went to Berlin for repairs at an altitude of less than 3,000 meters.
It happens worldwide and almost every day. Ground traffic service vehicles collide with aircraft on the apron. The list is long. It ranges from tow tractors, which rotate under aircraft fuselages and thereby puncture the aircraft skin, to passenger boarding bridges, which hit the machines with great force and cause dents, to damage to the landing gear by tow tractors.
Hectic and stress are often the triggers. The number of collisions on the ground has been increasing for years. The reason for this development is mainly the growth of air traffic. Logically, because more aircraft in the air means more on the ground. In addition, in many cases the turnaround times of the aircraft, i.e. the time they spend on the ground, are reduced.
Lufthansa plane to Berlin without cabin pressure
On March 18, a Lufthansa Airbus A319 was hit. The machine with the registration D-AILE collided with a service vehicle at Salzburg Airport. The fuselage was so severely damaged that the machine had to be flown to Berlin for repairs without cabin pressure, i.e. below an altitude of 3000 meters. It is not known exactly where the machine was damaged.
Lufthansa confirms the incident at the request of aeroTELEGRAPH and reports: “The aircraft is currently in Berlin for repairs and will be ready for use again in the near future”. The D-AILE was delivered in 1996 and is therefore almost 27 years old.
Catering door is a classic
Maintenance circles say that a collision at the catering door in particular is a classic. For the damage caused by the catering on the door, the technology needs a flat rate of around five days for the repair. Many factors play a role in this.
Sometimes, however, work can also be moved to the next C-Check. The C-Check is a comprehensive maintenance that includes an inspection of the outer shell as well as system checks and cleaning.
