Taxiway system plan after jets clip wings

Dublin Airport is to revise its taxiway system following an incident in which two Ryanair planes clipped wings with each other at Dublin Airport last year.

The move comes after the Air Accident Investigations Unit (AAIU) published a report into the incident which occurred in the early hours of October of last year.

The airport was closed for a number of hours after the two planes clipped wings as one of them was taxiing to a stand.

No one was injured in the incident and passengers bound for Edinburgh and Charleroi departed later that morning.

A similar incident, also involving two Ryanair jets, occurred in April this year.

The AAIU report details how one of the pilots outlined how as the wings clipped, he had felt a bump but thought this was due to a “jet blast coming from the aircraft ahead” and only realised a collision had occurred after hearing another aircraft report that they had “clipped an aircraft”.

In its response to the AAIU, the Dublin Airport Authority said it was planning to implement a revised taxiway system.

“Following extensive consultation with stakeholders including airlines, IAA-ATC and IAA-SRD in the last year, Dublin Airport is currently finalising a plan to implement a revised taxiway designation system.

“The full campus taxiway redesignation will be implemented in the course of the next three years as part of the apron and taxiway upgrade projects,” said the report.

The AAIIU noted that although the incident did not cause injury, it considered that “there is potential for such collisions to be more serious”. It recommended further research is needed in order to assess the requirement for anti-collision aids to help pilots determine wingtip clearance during ground manoeuvring.