History of the Flight
The Dassault Falcon 7X, registration N312P, landed at Oxford Airport on Runway 19 at 0802 hrs UTC after a flight from Chicago Midway Airport, USA. The commander followed ATC instructions to proceed on Taxiway A to the parking area. As the aircraft taxied on Taxiway A alongside the apron, ATC advised the crew that they appeared to have made contact with a parked aircraft. None of the four people on board had felt the collision, and the Falcon 7X continued taxiing and shut down on its allocated parking area.
After parking, the commander inspected his aircraft for signs of damage. There were paint markings on the left winglet, transferred from the parked Piper Seneca (G-BGFT), but no further damage was visible. At 0832 hrs, the Falcon 7X departed for Paris le Bourget Airport, where it was inspected by a maintenance organisation approved for the type, confirming no significant damage.
The Piper Seneca sustained damage to its rudder, which was assessed by maintenance personnel as requiring replacement.
Discussion
The apron at Oxford Airport had two rows of designated stands for light aircraft parking. The stands were marked, and it was evident that the Seneca was not parked correctly; its tail was about 1.2 m (4 ft) closer to the taxiway than the aircraft parked on adjacent stands.
Two taxiways are available from Runway 01/19: Taxiway A leads from the end of Runway 19 to the south side of the apron; Taxiway B leads from the eastern end of intersecting Runway 11/29 to the north side. The commercial airport chart used by the crew included a warning note: 'Aircraft with a wingspan in excess of 49 ft/15 m should exercise caution on Taxiway B.' There was no caution concerning Taxiway A.
Taxiway A, marked by a yellow centreline, continues along the east side of the apron. At that point, it was not sufficiently wide to meet the requirements in Civil Aviation Publication (CAP) 168 for aircraft such as the Falcon 7X, which has a wingspan of 86 ft (26.21 m). ATC had the option of requesting assistance from the Airfield Rescue and Firefighting Service (RFFS) to make a visual check of wingtip clearance when larger aircraft used the taxiway. This was not done on this occasion.
An apron reconfiguration programme was scheduled for February 2011 to move light aircraft parking stands further west, increasing the Taxiway A strip to 26.5 m to enable safe passage of larger aircraft. However, at the time of the accident, this work had not yet started.
Aftermath
After the incident, Oxford Airport instigated the following interim safety actions:
- A notice to be issued reminding instructors at the training organisation using the apron parking stands of the importance of aircraft being parked correctly.
- ATC to require all larger aircraft to be routed to use Taxiway B.
- The apron reconfiguration programme to be started as a matter of urgency.
The apron configuration was completed in May 2011.