A maintenance mishap has left an Emirates Airbus A380-800 with serious damage to its nose and surrounding structure.
The aircraft, registered A6-EOP, was undergoing a routine maintenance check when the aircraft collapsed onto its nose.
Occurring at an Emirates maintenance hangar at Dubai International Airport, the accident has left the aircraft with a torn/crumpled fuselage and structural damage.
It’s understood the aircraft slipped off a hydraulic jack, crushing the nose, gear doors and jamming the gear assembly upwards.
Once raised off the ground, a thorough check will be conducted to determine the full extent of the damage.
Built in 2015, as MSN200, the aircraft has actively been in service with the airline, powering through the skies with four Engine Alliance GP7200 engines.
No injuries have been reported so far, however as more information is provided this post will be updated.
Updates
It’s being recorded that this accident happened on the 22nd of August and may have been caused by a gear retraction without the pin in place.
According to our source, this is A6-EOP and it happened on 22AUG. Seems like someone retracted the gear without the pin inserted and the aircraft was not on a support stanchion. https://t.co/zJoG06Q2Oe
— FATIII Aviation (@FATIIIAviation) August 24, 2019
Emirates Airbus A380 (A6-EOP, msn 200, built Nov 2015) was seriously damaged in a maintenance mishap in Dubai, UAE when its nose fell off the jacks and crashed to the ground. Structural damage is expected near the nosegear. No injuries reported. @a380fanclub pic.twitter.com/SBn1HnkPpd
— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) August 24, 2019
Information sourced from Twitter and the Aviation Safety Network.
Gear retraction with weight on is impossible I suspect there is more to the real story which may or may not come out. I have flown on this very plane, at least twice and hope the damage is minor and it returns to service quickly. If not, it will be a big hole in their scheduling.
Yes, this is possible. Just have to bypass the air/ground switch which maintenance personnel are allowed to do to troubleshoot the landing gear.
If the reports are correct and a large number of 380 orders have been cancelled, the future building of them to be scrapped then Emirates is probably not going to be in a rush to repair this one.
FUSELEGE .
ONCE THE EMIRATES 380 DOUBLE DECKER 😊THE CAREER WAS TRYING TO TAKEOFF ON THE RUNWAY .AND THE PILOT WAS DOUBTING ABT THE SOME FUSELEGE PROBLEM.AND HE WAS IMMEDIATELY STOPPED 😑AFTER SOME CORRECTION AND HE PLANNED TO TAKE OFF ..
Minor mistakes cost billions.It is blunder, thanks God no casualty.
Who’s gonna feel comfortable flying on this one in the future after Vinnie gets done fixing it and gives it a salvage title?
What a load of bollocks some people exhibit with stupid comments like this!!!
The wheels can’t retract when the weight on wheels sensor detects weight. Was this bypased and then someone had the wheels retracted? If so then that is a long chain of things that went wrong, someone seriously fucked up.
What a pity, hope they manage to fix it!
Management is probably like “wohoo! We get to write off one of these giant planes we can never fill and we barely make any money on so we can buy a two 787 instead”. Glad no injuries.
Emirates fills their A380s. I was on 3 A380s in the last week and all of them fully booked. 2 of them in 2 Class config with 615 Seats. And flown on many fully booked a380 flights before aswell.
Happened to Air Canada with a 747 decades ago.
Ouch. Hopefully it can be repaired, but if damaged beyond repair, it will be sad because the airframe is fairly young.