A British Airways operated Boeing 777-200 jet had a cabin door ripped off while it was preparing for departure in Cape Town on Wednesday evening. The aircraft was parked at the terminal and connected to a jet bridge with the cabin door open when a tug driver allegedly started to push the plane back.
Photos of the aircraft shared on Twitter showed the door propped up inside the jet bridge after being ripped clean off the plane.
The plane was due to operate British Airways flight BA42 back to London Heathrow airport but that flight has, unsurprisingly, been cancelled and specialized repair work will be required to get the plane airworthy again.
There were no reported injuries as a result of the incident.
Although incidents like this are rare, jet bridge mishaps do happen from time to time. In August 2020, an Emirates 777-300 was badly damaged after the jet bridge malfunctioned and started lifting while the forward left-hand door was open.
The door was almost ripped off and thankfully no one was around the door or jet bridge at the time of the accident.
A similar accident occurred to a Lufthansa A340-300 jet at Denver International Airport in 2008 when the jet bridge suddenly and unexpectedly lowered. In that incident, the door was ripped clean off just moments after 204 passengers had boarded the aircraft.
In the same year, another A340-300 operated by Virgin Atlantic was badly damaged when a jet bridge at Cape Town International Airport also collapsed. The repair time after that ancient was estimated to be 6-8 weeks because of feared structural damage.
