2001-12 · NASA ASRS report 533415
MD80 WING TIP STRUCK JETWAY DURING TAXI OUT UNDER DIRECTION OF THE MARSHALL AND A WING WALKER.
I WAS CAPT ON A FLT THAT IS NORMALLY A FLT FROM KPIT TO KABE. ON THE NIGHT OF 12/WED/01 WE WERE GIVEN THE ADDITIONAL PAX FOR KAVP AND TOLD TO FLAG STOP AT KAVP THEN PROCEED TO KABE. WE ARRIVED AT KAVP AND OFF LOADED THOSE PAX. WITHOUT INCIDENT. AFTER FUELING AND OFF LOADING PAX AT KAVP WE PREPARED TO CONTINUE TO KABE JUST AFTER MIDNIGHT. AFTER ENG START I COMPLETED JOUR AFTER START CHKLIST; WE WERE GIVEN THE CUSTOMARY SALUTE AND WAIVE OFF. AT THE GND MARSHALLER'S DIRECTIONS WE BEGAN OUR TAXI OUT WITH A SHARP TURN OUT OF THE GATE. DURING THE TURN I NOTICED THE MARSHALLER LOOKING TOWARDS THE WING WALKER WITH AN UNUSUAL LOOK ON HIS FACE. AFTER APPROX 90 DEGS OF TURNOUT I STOPPED THE ACFT; AND AFTER I STOPPED THE MARSHALLER GAVE ME THE STOP SIGNAL BY CROSSING HIS HANDS. UNFORTUNATELY; IT WAS TOO LATE BECAUSE THE LEFT WING TIP DID CONTACT AND BREAK THROUGH A FIBERGLASS PANEL ON THE JETWAY. THE FLT WAS CANCELLED AND ALL APPROPRIATE CALLS WERE MADE. I HONESTLY DO NOT KNOW WHAT I COULD DO PERSONALLY TO PREVENT THIS INCIDENT. WE ARE ALWAYS CLOSE TO JETWAYS ON TAXI OUTS AND DEPEND ON GND CREW TO CLR US. HERE; THE MARSHALLER WAS CLRLY SIGNALING ME TO CONTINUE THE TURN. I STOPPED AT THE FIRST INDICATION I SAW OF TROUBLE; THAT IS THE LOOK ON THE MARSHALLER'S FACE. THERE WAS CONFUSION ON THE GND BETWEEN THE WING WALKER AND MARSHALLER AT THE FRONT OF THE ACFT. THE WING WALKER WAS WAIVING HIS ARMS AT THE JETWAY DRIVER TO MOVE THE JETWAY FURTHER BACK. THE MARSHALLER TOOK THAT SIGNAL TO THE JETWAY DRIVER AS A SIGNAL TO HIM TO PROCEED FWD. THERE WAS ALSO AN ELEMENT OF TRYING TO GET THE ACFT OUT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE THAT MAY HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO THE INCIDENT.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.