Emirates plane collides with Ethiopian Boeing 777

Wednesday, 05 January 2011 16:14 

Source Reporter:

By Zekarias Sintayehu

Emirates’ Airbus A340 collided with Ethiopian Airlines’ new Boeing 777-200 LR yesterday at Bole International Airport.

The incident happened when the Emirates plane was trying to take-off to Entebbe International Airport while the Boeing 777 was parked at Stand 17 in the airport.

The Ethiopian plane flight number ET-501 with registration number ET ANN Boeing 777-200 LR landed on 9:10 am from the US. The airbus smashed the Boeing 777 on its tail Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) with its left wing, while heading to the runway to take-off. Though the airbus left wing was caught with smoke and could not take off, after a while, the airbus have been maintained and made its flight.

On the other end, the Ethiopian Boeing canceled its flight scheduled to take off at 10:15 pm to the US. The tail of the plane was cracked by about 15 cm The Reporter has learnt. According to sources, the question where the plane would be maintained in Addis or at the Boeing head office still stays open ended.

Ethiopian bought Boeing 777-200 LR priced USD 500 million last November. It is recalled that the former Ethiopian CEO, Girma Wake went to Seattle to bring the first Boeing 777-200 LR to Africa. The airline’s officials declined to comment on the issue.