Summary
- An A350-1000 operated by Virgin Atlantic suffered an incident with a ground service vehicle at New York-JFK airport.
- The incident caused the plane’s next flight to be canceled.
- It remains on the ground as the airline investigates any damage.
A Virgin Atlantic flight from New York to London was canceled on Monday after an incident involving a ground service vehicle happened at its gate. An Airbus A350-1000 was scheduled to operate the flight, but it remains grounded as crews inspect for possible damage.
The widebody jet was stationary when the vehicle was believed to have “rolled into” its left engine cowling. However, some onlookers have speculated that the engine “came down onto the car ever so slowly” after weight was added to the aircraft.
Details about the incident
According to a Reddit post, the aircraft is registered as G-VDOT. An image of the aftermath shows the hood of a Gate Gourmet vehicle wedged underneath the A350’s large engine, with ground workers appearing to assess the situation.
FlightAware data indicated that the aircraft was parked at gate A4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) after arriving from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) as VS25 Sunday night at around 22:30. The plane was due to return to LHR on Monday as VS26 with a scheduled departure time of 08:20.
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A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson confirmed the incident in a statement to Simple Flying on Monday.
“Today’s VS26 from New York JFK to London Heathrow has been cancelled following an incident at the gate at JFK involving the engine cowling of a stationary Virgin Atlantic aircraft and a catering service provider’s car that rolled into it. We can confirm that no customers were on board the aircraft during this time.”
Did the car hit the engine, or the engine hit the car?
The photo does not depict any visible damage to the A350 or the car. Although the airline stated that there were not any passengers onboard and the vehicle indeed hit the aircraft, it is unclear exactly when it happened. One Reddit user theorized that the engine may have hit the vehicle instead.
“Or did they park the car there, and then the aircraft was fueled and loaded with cargo/pax? Just one more possibility,” the user noted. “I am almost certain that is exactly what happened. Engine cowls are astonishingly flimsy. Seeing how far down the front of that car is pushed down, he would have had to be moving at a decent clip to get wedged that far under the engine… Everything visible here suggests the engine came down onto the car ever so slowly.”
Safety is a top priority
According to ch-aviation, the aircraft is seven years old and first flew in 2017. It was delivered new to Virgin in September 2020. When ground incidents impact flights, airlines typically rush to find a replacement aircraft, depending on where the incident occurred and how it may affect its operation. The flight was likely canceled since no aircraft were immediately available, considering Virgin is based across the pond.
“The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority. We’ve commenced a full and thorough investigation of this occurrence and our engineering teams are performing maintenance checks on the engine cowling,” the spokesperson explained. “We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and are working hard to ensure all customers complete their journey soon.”
Photo: Airbus
The extent of the damage remains unclear, but the aircraft will likely be removed from service for the next several days. Some Reddit users also suspected that the engine may need to be replaced entirely.
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