On the evening of April 13th, a Japan Airlines Boeing 737-800 parked on the Tarmac at Tokyo-Narita International Airport rotated 90 degrees clockwise due to high winds.
Consequentially the tip of the left-wing contacted the boarding bridge, suffering damages. It should be noted that an empty 737-800 weights around 41 tonnes.
The aircraft, with registration JA310J, made her last flight from Osaka to Tokyo on April 5th and since then has been parked on Terminal 2 of Narita Airport.
At that time there no passengers or crew on board.
According to NHK the plane’s front and rear wheels were secured by wheel chocks, but the airport is investigating the situation. It also reported that the incident occurred around 16:30 and at that time the maximum instantaneous wind speed was 20.1 mps.
The weather conditions further deteriorated on that day and a number of flights were diverted to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. For example, a Peach A320 (MM580) from Sapporo to Narita had to be diverted to Haneda.
Over the past six-weeks, Japan Airlines has been reducing flights and grounding aircraft in response to the low demand caused by COVID-19.
Source: This story is originally reported by NHK
Incredible. Weighs 41tons empty and still moved 90 degrees! Really hard to believe isn’t it!
20.1 m/s is equal to 45 miles per hour or 72.4 km/h.
A strong wind gust to be sure, but not one that would be expected to spin a 737 by 90 degrees under normal circumstances.