The wingtip of an empty Virgin Atlantic jet collided with a stationary British Airways airliner while being towed from a stand at London’s Heathrow Airport on Saturday, the airlines said.
Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, said no passenger injuries had been reported and it did not anticipate any ongoing impact on the airport’s operations.
“Our aircraft is being assessed by our engineering teams and we have provided an alternative aircraft to limit the impact on our customers,” British Airways said in a statement.
Virgin Atlantic said its empty Boeing 787-9 had just completed a flight and was being towed to another part of the airfield when the incident happened at Terminal 3.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: “We’ve commenced a full and thorough investigation and our engineering teams are performing maintenance checks on the aircraft, which for now has been taken out of service.”
The airline said there would be no disruption to its flying programme on Saturday.
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Heathrow Airport called London Airport until 1966 (IATA: LHR, ICAO: EGLL), is the main international airport serving London, the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others being Gatwick, City, Luton, Stansted and Southend). The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings, owned mostly by Ferrovial and Qatar Investment Authority and CDPQ. In 2022, it was the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic and the busiest airport in Europe in 2023. It is also the airport with the world’s most international connections as of 2023.
Heathrow was founded as a small airfield in 1929 but was developed into a much larger airport after World War II. It lies 14 miles (23 kilometres) west of Central London on a site that covers 4.74 square miles (12.3 square kilometres). It was gradually expanded over 75 years and now has two parallel east–west runways, four operational passenger terminals and one cargo terminal. The airport is the primary hub for British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
