Ground equipment collisions with aircraft – SAS’s story… Over many years SAS has operated DC-9 and later MD80 / MD90. Now, our daughter company Blue 1 operates B717 –all with low wings . In the mid 90´s we saw a high number of wingtip / wing collisions caused by equipment driving directly in to the wing causing significant damage. Sometimes we had 6-7 wing tips under repair and we started to investigatethe cause of these incident more closely. We found 2 main issues: - 1. At many airports, lines and features of buildings or other obstacles effectively “hid” the wing meaning that the wing blended into the background and was nearly invisible. 2. Many new airports have a lot of glass so the operator on ramp can see the aircraft several times in the “mirror”. This can be both very distracting and disorienting. In the 1990’s we introduced the use of wing tip cones first on our 3 base stations (OSL / ARN / CPH) and, later, across our whole network. In the beginning there was a great resistance for using them with later, across our whole network. In the beginning there was a great resistance for using them with excuses like more work, time consuming , too heavy etc. but as staff began to see the benefits and wingtip collisions reduced dramatically, staff saw the benefits and were keen to use them with high-wing aircraft as well. This provided a consistent approach to driving around all aircraft. Soon we also saw the benefit of using them around the engine nose cowl on all wing engine aircraft ( SAS operates around 120 wing engine aircraft). Today it is a mandatory requirement by many airlines and are also a standard in the IATA AHM. Wing damage on low-wing aircraft and engine cowl damage dropped to nearly zero. A damaged wingtip costs approx $US60,000, A damaged nose cowl costs between $US200,000 - 300,000.
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Ground equipment collisions with aircraft – SAS’s story…
Over many years SAS has operated DC-9 and later MD80 / MD90. Now, our daughter company Blue 1
operates B717 – all with low wings . In the mid 90´s we saw a high number of wingtip / wing collisions
caused by equipment driving directly in to the wing causing significant damage. Sometimes we had 6-7
wing tips under repair and we started to investigate the cause of these incident more closely.
We found 2 main issues: -
1. At many airports, lines and features of buildings or other obstacles effectively “hid” the wing
meaning that the wing blended into the background and was nearly invisible.
2. Many new airports have a lot of glass so the operator on ramp can see the aircraft several times in
the “mirror”. This can be both very distracting and disorienting.
In the 1990’s we introduced the use of wing tip cones first on our 3 base stations (OSL / ARN / CPH) and,
later, across our whole network. In the beginning there was a great resistance for using them with later, across our whole network. In the beginning there was a great resistance for using them with
excuses like more work, time consuming , too heavy etc. but as staff began to see the benefits and
wingtip collisions reduced dramatically, staff saw the benefits and were keen to use them with high-wing
aircraft as well. This provided a consistent approach to driving around all aircraft.
Soon we also saw the benefit of using them around the engine nose cowl on all wing engine aircraft ( SAS
operates around 120 wing engine aircraft). Today it is a mandatory requirement by many airlines and are
also a standard in the IATA AHM.
Wing damage on low-wing aircraft and engine cowl damage dropped to nearly zero.
A damaged wingtip costs approx $US60,000,
A damaged nose cowl costs between $US200,000 - 300,000.
Damage assessment and claim recovery
Case study: Preventive actions
On the next slide:
How many wing tips do you see ?How many wing tips do you see ?
Damage assessment and claim recovery
Case study: Preventive actions
Damage assessment and claim recovery
Case study: Preventive actions
How many wing-tips did you see?
And where were they?
Damage assessment and claim recovery
Case study: Preventive actions Tipcones !
Damage assessment and claim recovery
Without Tipcones !
Damage assessment without Wingtip cones!
The result of other errors when approaching
aircraft!
All damage to aircraft must be reported to prevent
inflight explosive depressurisation
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