Ed Force One is the private Boeing that trails Iron Maiden around the world. Often piloted by their frontman Bruce Dickinson, the plane collided with a tow truck on Saturday in Chile. While Iron Maiden, their crew and 20 tons of equipment were not onboard at the time, two ground tug operators were hospitalised with injuries. Here’s Iron Maiden’s side of the story:

Ed Force One was this morning tethered to a tow truck to be taken for refuelling prior to flying over the Andes to Cordoba for the next show. On moving the steering pin that is part of the mechanism that connects the ground tug to the aircraft seemingly fell out.

On making a turn the aircraft had no steering and collided with the ground tug badly damaging the undercarriage, two of the aircrafts engines and injuring two ground tug operators, both of whom have been taken to hospital. We hope of course that they make a full and speedy recovery and we will be closely monitoring their progress. The flight engineers are on site and evaluating the damage, but their initial report is that the engines have suffered large damage and will require an extended period of maintenance and possibly two new engines.

Below is the undamaged version of their plane, but check out full specs HERE:

In true rock ‘n roll form, the show must go on. The band announced that their two shows in Argentina would be happening:

We are happy to tell our fans in Cordoba that our Killer Krew has sorted out all logistics for us to be there with our full show for you all tomorrow. We expect no disruption to the tour in any way and are looking for a replacement 747 Ed Force One while our current beauty is healed.

[source: ironmaiden&rollingstone]