The story is shared by reader Peter van den Berg
On 23rd July 2000 I was flying NW0049 from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to Detroit. My first ever flight, with an onward connection to Boston Logan Airport. Not the most direct route available, but I had to pay for the ticket myself and this reroute saved me a lot of money; which was of the utmost importance at the time, as I was only 18 years old and funds were tight. Besides, as an Avgeek and plane spotter what’s better than time spent in the air? NWA was operating a Boeing 747-400 for the leg to Detroit.
After I found my aisle seat, at the back of the plane on the right-hand side, I began to get myself situated whilst boarding was being finalized; this would take some time, as the plane was fully loaded.
Suddenly there was a strange sound, the plane moved backward and forward and left to right.
There was a stewardess facing me and she shrugged her shoulders like she didn’t understand what had happened either; but she remained calm, smiled and got on with closing baggage compartments. I was a bit distracted myself, as I noticed my mountain bike was being loaded. Although I had an aisle seat, the 2 seats next to me where still empty; so I busied myself by taking in all the platform activities.
Shortly after the captain came on and explained that our plane had been hit by a KLM MD-11, while it was being pushed back from the gate. It was then that I noticed that there were fire brigade vehicles everywhere.
The winglet of the MD-11 had cut straight through the B747 winglet on the left side wing, which was on the opposite side to me.
We de-planed, got vouchers and incurred a length delay; which, in the end, became 6 hrs. We noticed the KLM service crew taking off the winglet; which was large but didn’t look extremely heavy, as they were manually handling it.
Later that evening everybody re-boarded the same airplane and we soon departed, with one winglet missing.
The captain comforted everyone by stating that whilst it wasn’t fuel-efficient, the asymmetrical situation would not be unsafe.
When we finally landed at Detroit there was clapping and cheers throughout the plane.
Arriving at night in Detroit, we transferred into a hotel. Just to get up really early for the flight to Boston Logon on a B757-200. We saw the crippled 747-400 as we taxied out; unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera on standby and I was never able to get a front-facing picture of it which is a shame, as this would have been the best shot to clearly see both wings.
The story is shared by reader Peter van den Berg
Always appreciate these stories!
I worked as a loadcontroller at Amsterdam at the time and I was tasked with providing the weight and balance calculations for, among others, Northwest. I remember a lot of discussion taking place as to whether or not the aircraft was dispatcheable according to the MEL, or if Boeing, the FAA and the Dutch equivalent, the RLD, were able to to release the aircraft sans winglet back to home base with passengers on board. The answer was a yes, as it was deemed that there would be no aerodynamic penalty apart from extra drag and more fuel burn. As the rest of the wing was undamaged and structurally sound, the winglet was removed, the wingtip secured and off she went. On a side note, the Boeing 747-400D, for the Japanese domestic market, does not have winglets, as the extra weight does not compensate for the savings in fuel burn with winglets on short sectors, The weight savings can be used to carry more passengers and cargo, depending on if the Aircraft is limited on Zero Fuel Weight or Landing weight.
Hmm. A story that was actually a story 21 years ago.
Interesting story – I’ve had many trips on NW 747s – mostly 400s, but a few 200s from before the winglet days.
Also had a plane get hit – A CO DC10 in Houston – as I recall a baggage cart hit the side of the plane. In that case we all offloaded and they brought in another DC10 so the delay was only about 90 minutes as I recall.