Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-343 carrying 272 passengers and 12 crew struck an aerobridge at Changi Airport. The airplane was scheduled to depart Singapore for Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, but the forward fuselage of the Airbus A330-300 struck the rear aerobridge during pushback from the airport.
“All passengers and crew disembarked normally via the forward aerobridge. Arrangements were made for passengers to be accommodated on another aircraft to Ho Chi Minh City”, says the official statement of Singapore Airlines.
No injuries were reported during the accident. The investigation for the accident is under way.
Changi Airport Group (CAG) said that the aerobridge was slightly damaged in the incident, but has since been repaired. It also said that ground personnel provided assistance to the affected passengers.
The Airbus A330 is a medium- to long-range wide-body twin-engine jet airliner made by Airbus. Versions of the A330 have a range of 5,000 to 13,430 km (2,700 to 7,250 nmi) and can accommodate up to 335 passengers in a two-class layout or carry 70 tonnes (154,000 lb) of cargo.
The airplane0’s origin dates to the mid-1970s as one of several conceived derivatives of Airbus’s first airliner, the A300. The A330 was developed in parallel with the four-engine A340, which shared many common airframe components but differed in number of engines. Both airliners incorporated fly-by-wire flight control technology, first introduced on an Airbus aircraft with the A320, as well as the A320’s six-display glass cockpit. In June 1987, after receiving orders from various customers, Airbus launched the A330 and A340. The A330 was Airbus’s first airliner that offered a choice of three engine types: General Electric CF6, Pratt & Whitney PW4000, and Rolls-Royce Trent 700.
