What happened
On 21 April 2008, an Avro RJ85, registration D-AVRJ, was preparing for departure from London City Airport. The aircraft had arrived from Munich and was parked on Stand 10. During the turnaround, the aircraft was repositioned using a tug to increase wingtip clearance from an Avro RJ100 parked on the adjacent Stand 11. This repositioning, however, unintentionally reduced the clearance between the tails of the two aircraft.
As the crew prepared for departure, the commander noted that the adjacent aircraft appeared closer than usual and requested that the marshaller specifically monitor the left wingtip clearance during the taxi. The aircraft began to taxi forward and initiated a right turn. During this maneuver, the left horizontal stabiliser of the D-AVRJ moved into the path of the RJ100's right elevator, resulting in minor damage to the parked aircraft.
The investigation
The investigation established that the RJ100 on Stand 11 had been parked 1 meter to the right of its stand centreline. While the tug repositioning of D-AVRJ successfully increased the distance between the wingtips, it simultaneously decreased the tail clearance. The investigation found that while the airport operator had implemented procedures to monitor wingtip clearance, there was no specific requirement or personnel assigned to monitor the tail area during such maneuvers.
Findings
- The primary cause of the contact was the reduced tail clearance between the two aircraft caused by the repositioning of D-AVRJ.
- The aircraft on Stand 11 was parked off-centre, which further narrowed the available space.
- While the crew actively monitored the wingtip clearance, the potential for tailplane contact had not been identified as a specific hazard, and no ground personnel were assigned to observe the tail area.
Safety action
Following the incident, the airport operator implemented three new safety measures for aircraft maneuvering between Stands 10 and 11:
- Ground staff must now provide both wingtip and tail fin observation for any aircraft self-manoeuvring off Stand 10.
- Specific procedures were established for when an aircraft remains parked on Stand 11.
- Enhanced communication requirements were introduced for ground staff during these maneuvers.