[imagesource: Envato Elements / Chalabala]
Towing a massive aircraft from gate to gate or from storage to the taxiing areas is no easy feat.
Airports make use of those nifty little truck cabs, called tugs, that have to manoeuvre very carefully and skillfully to get the giant plane in its place.
For one tug at the LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York City on Tuesday, the task proved beyond it.
Videos shared on social media show how the driver manoeuvred poorly, sending the Boeing 737-800 into a momentum that landed up squashing the tug.
The first video shows the tug driver towing the plane into a jackknife after making a sharp right turn, and the second shows the aftermath of the tug pinned down and completely compressed.
This is how not to tug-two a plan, ya’ll:
Pushback tug crushed underneath American Airlines 737 after a towing incident at LaGuardia Airport. No injuries reported. https://t.co/U7QqchgGr0 pic.twitter.com/Bh0VGoQ728
— Aviation Pictures & News (@aviationpicss) August 3, 2022
“The 91,000-pound plane had enough momentum to snap the tow bar like a twig,” wrote The Drive, but instead it just pulped the tug:
An airport official stated that there were “no reported injuries to team members [but] as a precautionary measure, one team member was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.”
American Airlines also confirmed that the plane was empty at the time and was being moved from a hangar to the gate for a departure.
The plane was swapped out after the accident and sent to get inspected and repaired.
LaGuardia officials confirmed that the incident didn’t impact operations.
[source:drive]
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