- Did you witness the incident this morning? Email: Darren.Boyle@mailonline.co.uk
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A Virgin Atlantic 787 collided with a British Airways Airbus A350 while backing out of the Heathrow Airport terminal building causing minor damage to both aircraft.
The Virgin plane was being guided by a tugboat when its flaps struck the tail of the neighboring BA plane.
Emergency services attended the scene after the impact at low speed.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: “We are aware that the wing tip of one of our empty aircraft came into contact with another aircraft whilst being towed from the Heathrow Terminal 3 stand in London.
‘The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority. We can confirm that there were no customers on board the Virgin Atlantic aircraft during this time.
“We have launched a full and thorough investigation and our engineering teams are carrying out maintenance checks on the aircraft, which has been taken out of service for now.”
The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 collided with the British Airways Airbus A350 as it was being pushed back from the terminal building at Heathrow Airport.
Emergency services attended the scene after learning of the low-speed accident.
One Twitter user, Alex Whittles, wrote: ‘Just witnessed a plane crash at Heathrow!
“A tugboat backed a Virgin 787 and crashed its wing into a BA A350.”
The British Airways plane had recently arrived in London from Accra, Ghana, and was due to depart on the return journey at 12.40pm from Gate 25 of Terminal 3.
Their departure has been delayed until 6:30 pm, according to Heathrow Airport’s departure board.
Baggage handlers were operating in the area of ​​the British Airways plane when the impact occurred.
At least five firefighting units responded to the scene in case of a fuel leak or possible fire. A host of other airport security officials secured the location.
The incident will be investigated by the Air Accident Investigation Branch of the Department of Transportation.
They will want to know whether there were enough personnel involved in the pushback from the terminal building and how the Virgin plane was able to hit the horizontal stabilizer of the British Airways plane.
MailOnline has contacted British Airways and Heathrow Airport for comment.