Emergency services were called to Heathrow Airport after a ‘minor collision’ between two aircraft.
The two aircraft owned by Icelandair (Boeing 757) and Korean Air (Boeing 777) collided on the tarmac at about 8pm on Wednesday, 28 September.
The airport has confirmed that the accident was not a head-on collision, but rather one aircraft scraped the tail of the other. The damage to the aircraft has been deemed by officials as “not serious”.
Passenger Richard Taylor described the collision from his point of view while onboard the Korean Air flight, saying there was “…very little movement from our wing as it touched” but adding that “it looked like shards” breaking off the tail of the parked Icelandair plane.
Passengers and onlookers took to social media to provide updates on the situation, posting videos and images of the incident.
One Twitter user provided a video with the caption: “Is this normal for Heathrow? Got to be 4 or 5 different emergency service vehicles with blue lights flashing on the tarmac.”
The Guardian’s defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh, happened to be on the Korean Air flight when the incident occurred. He provided a statement to The Guardian saying that there were about 10 police cars and two fire engines, explaining that passengers deboarded the plane for safety reasons.
When the passengers exited the plane, they were attended to by emergency services.
A Heathrow spokesperson commented on the incident shortly after news broke out.
“Emergency services are attending an incident involving two aircraft on the airfield. No injuries have been reported, but emergency services are attending to ensure all passengers and crew are safe and well,” they said.
London Fire Brigade was deployed to the scene alongside London ambulance and police services.
A London Ambulance Service spokesman has commented on the incident, “We were called today at 8.06pm to reports of an incident at Heathrow Airport. We sent a number of resources to the scene including members of our hazardous area response team, a clinical team leader, a cycle responder and an incident response officer.”
“We attended a reception centre for passengers but nobody required treatment or needed to be taken to hospital,” they said.
While no statement has been issued by either of the two airlines, the incident is being investigated.
