Things Go Bang in the Night

Air Safety Week, Dec 8, 2008

On November 7, the wing of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 (N254WN), Flight 784, struck the wing of another Southwest 737 during push back from a jetway at Salt Lake City International, Salt Lake City, UT.

The contact between the two jetliners resulted in the replacement of the right winglet of N254WN.

According to initial reports from the FAA, Flight 784 was being pushed back from the Jetway of Gate B-13 when the airplane's right winglet struck the left winglet of an unoccupied Boeing 737 parked at gate B-15. The wing-walker watching the right wing of N254WN saw that there was going to be contact, and began yelling at the tug driver to stop. In addition to his oral command, the wing-walker also gave the standard visual stop signal of crossing his two batons.

The tug driver said he did not see the stop signal, nor hear the oral command, as he was concentrating on clearing the jetway at the time the stop signals were given.

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