Description

On 18 January 2003, a Boeing 747-400F being operated by Singapore Airlines Cargo on a scheduled cargo flight from Paris CDG to Dubai taxied for departure in darkness and fog with visibility less than 100 metres in places and the right wing was in collision with a stationary and unoccupied ground de/anti icing vehicle without the awareness of either the flight crew or anybody else at the time. Significant damage occurred to the de icing vehicle and the aircraft was slightly damaged. The vehicle damage was not discovered until almost two hours later and the aircraft involved was not identified until it arrived in Dubai where the damage was observed and the authorities at Paris CDG advised.

Investigation

An investigation was carried out by the French BEA. It was established that aircraft damage had been to the outer right wing slat and leading edge. Some small pieces of related debris were found at the site of the collision and a part of the slat was found on the northern edge of the take off runway 26. The operator’s control cabin on the de-icing vehicle was substantially damaged.

The Investigation noted as follows:

“The documentation on the parking of de-icing vehicles is imprecise. The dissymmetry of some zones is not indicated, nor is the function of the ground markings in relation to the positioning of the vehicles. On the contrary, the schematic diagrams for positioning the de-icing vehicles in operation may lead to the conclusion that positioning the vehicle onto the painted line does not create any risk; an agent’s experience would confirm this in fact, unless he had the opportunity to work on one of the rare zones where this supposition is incorrect.