[superchris]

I think its a safe assumption that the BA captain was at fault, its the contributing factors Im interested in, ie is there a lack of ground radar at OR Tambo?

Also, does anyone know if this incident counts against Africa’s safety record which is currently subject to massive interest from IATA? Seems rather unfair if it does.

[BusinessBabble]

A new wing 🙂 sounds like a major operation!

Wasn’t there talk previously on this forum of BA self insuring hulls, and I read elsewhere that RR were preparing to go retrieve the engines, but perhaps that would happen even if they went down the route of repairing the aircraft.

Interesting what you can learn from chatting with BA crew, a bit off topic but on my last flight a chatty crew member told me the Ethiopian 787 at Heathrow was actually written off by insurers but Boeing took it upon themselves to prove it could be repaired more as a PR exercise. No one knew whether the plane would be handed back to Ethiopian or Boeing once repaired. Maybe just gossip, but possibly BA would go down the same route with G-BNLL? It wouldn’t be great PR to have an old BA plane parked up with all the other old 1Time and Nationwide rust buckets you can see scrapped at JNB!

[BigDog.]

Had heard it was a write-off. It has exacerbated the situation at BA as the aircraft was in better condition than most of its 747s and was planned to be kept for the relatively longer term.

The degree assets have been sweated appears now to be causing deeper problems with flights being cancelled when aircraft goes tech as there appears a scarcity of readily available back-ups – a 777 JFK destined this morning being the most recent.

[superchris]

Business Babble, if RR are retrieving engines, I wonder if engine number 4 is still in someones office!

[LuganoPirate]

It’s hard to tell from the photos, but I very much doubt the whole wing will need to be replaced. It probably looks much worse than it actually is. As someone pointed out earlier, the wing is not designed to take a vertical load but nonetheless they are pretty strong and a single walled building would be no match for a 350 tonne 747 moving at about 25 – 30 kph, as was proven.

My understanding is its a dispute between insurers preventing anything from happening and further complicated by the fact that BA is not the owner, just the operator of the aircraft, so they will have a major say in what happens though I’ve no idea of the terms between them and BA.

As to BA insuring their own hulls, maybe they do if they own them, but any lessor would almost certainly demand an insurance policy in their favour to cover any loss.

[openfly]

Hi LP….oops! “….the wing is not designed to take a vertical load”
I really hope it is, otherwise I shall use a bus for my next trip to South Africa!! Wings are not too keen on large horizontal loads, especially when hitting South African Airways engineering offices! :-))

[LuganoPirate]

Sorry Openfly, got my verticals and horizontals muddled up. Should of course read “horizontal” load. I must keep off the Rooibos tea, it’s clearly affecting my mind!

[openfly]

LP….well at least it shows I was paying attention……!

[AMcWhirter]

The fate of the B747 at JNB is still undecided reports Flight Global.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/ba-yet-to-decide-on-fate-of-747-damaged-in-johannesburg-395653/

[JohnHarper]

It does seem a long time later to be dithering. Has the 744 been moved or is it still wedged in the building?

[LuganoPirate]

It’s been moved John, parked somewhere behind the hangars I think. The building still hasn’t been fixed though!

[rjhcambs]

This was in today’s BA Source,

Internal British Airways publications now show that Boeing 747-436 G-BNLL, which was damaged at Johannesburg on 22nd December 2013 when its right wing struck a building, has now been officially withdrawn from service

[FlyerDoc]

Apparently it was due to be fitted with NF soon

[openfly]

Should make nice saucepans!

[LuganoPirate]

747 for sale.
1 previous owner
Bit of damage on the wing
No rust!

Seriously, I wonder what they will do with it now. It’s just had a complete overhaul,so no doubt it will be stripped of its avionics, engines and anything else of any value. I suppose it will then be scrapped?

[Author]

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