A plane carrying nearly 190 people smashed into a fence while the tug driving instructor focused on advising a trainee, an investigation has found.
The Ryanair plane, with 181 passengers and six crew aboard, crashed at Stansted Airport on 21 August 2024.
It sustained “substantial damage”, according to a newly released Air Accidents Investigation Branch report.
The Boeing 737 jet was being moved to the Essex airport’s apron – the area where planes await runway departure slots – by a ground tug.
A trainee initially drove the tug, making an early turn and then “several corrective turns” before stopping, the report said.
An instructor sitting alongside her took over the controls and “continued to reassure and advise the trainee while performing the pushback, looking at her while doing so”, the report said.
The plane’s nosewheel moved beyond the tug release point (TRP) ground markings, where it was meant to stop.
That resulted in the aircraft striking a blast barrier, which protect areas from jet exhaust air.
The crash damaged the rear of the plane but caused no injuries.
The airport’s fire service attended the scene.
Following the crash, the instructor was given drug and alcohol tests, which he passed.
The man explained he was “focusing on speaking to the trainee” when he drove past the TRP, the report said.
He added that the markings were “not very prominent” and were “obscured” underneath the plane.
The trainee said she did not say anything when her instructor failed to stop as she was “assuming he must have known what he was doing”, the report stated.
The manoeuvre was carried out by workers for Blue Handling, a ground handling team from facility management provider ABM that serves Ryanair at Stansted.
ABM was approached for a comment.
Since the accident, the airport has doubled the length of TRPs from 50cm to one metre, and painted them on both sides of centre lines rather than just one side.
In October 2023, a Ryanair plane collided with a passenger assistance vehicle on a road at Stansted.
The jet’s right wing hit the roof of the vehicle, causing visible damage to both.
A report by the AAIB found the plane had right of way, and the vehicle’s driver may have been tired and distracted.
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