A Gol Boeing 737 MAX 8 collided with a service vehicle during its takeoff roll at Rio’s airport Tuesday night. The aircraft, registration PS‑GPP, was operating as flight G3‑1674 from Rio de Janeiro to Fortaleza when when a loud bang was heard as the aircraft accelerated as it accelerated down the 13,000 foot runway 10.
The plane suddenly veered sharply right before realigning with the centerline. The jolt forced pilots to engage maximum braking, and the aircraft came to a stop just short of the runway’s end. Cockpit audio has the captain declaring, “We aborted the takeoff, we hit a car in the middle of the runway.”
#IncidenteAéreo de #Boeing737MAX8 (PS-GPP) de #GOLinhasAéreas. Impactó contra vehículo de mantenimiento en plena carrera de despegue, en el eje de la pista 10 en el Aeropuerto Internacional de #Galeão (GIG/SBGL), #Brasil . Evacuado sin heridos el avión y el vehículo. 11-02-25 pic.twitter.com/gvXymsgnGT
— Iván Castro Palacios (@ivancp25) February 12, 2025
A Gol Airlines Boeing 737 Max hit a maintenance vehicle on the runway during takeoff at Galeão Airport in Río de Janeiro, Brazil. #Brasil #avião #acidente
The flight to Fortaleza was aborted, and passengers were safely disembarked with no injuries reported. The airport… pic.twitter.com/i33L6Xjifs
— GeoTechWar (@geotechwar) February 12, 2025
It appears that the plane hit a maintenance or service vehicle which may have been given clearance to cross the runway but had not vacated the active runway in time for the aircraft’s takeoff roll. Air traffic control recordings captured a brief moment of confusion when controllers sought to clarify whether the vehicle was positioned on the centerline or on an adjacent taxiway.
Emergency response teams applied precautionary fire retardant. Runway 10 was briefly closed for an investigation, however airport operations were not significantly disrupted. All 167 passengers and crew members evacuated safely and no injuries were reported.
Damage to 737-8max?
Impressive that there were no injuries. I would say ‘hit a vehicle’ not ‘colliding’ with what happened here recently, but, you do you, Gary. Sensational!
I am sure President Trump will be blamed for this accident.
Once again, I am sure that this comment will not be posted, but I will make it again —” I am sure that President trump will be blamed for this incident”. — Now, moderator, go ahead and remove my truthful comment, as you did the first time I made it.
Guessing that this is one of those times where “It will buff right out” does not apply. Impressive work by the flight crew, it’s unclear how long that runway was kept shut down for cleaning and inspection. I’d expect a fair amount of debris, recall that it takes very little for one piece to destroy an aircraft (Air France 4590).
@David R. Miller — That’s just silly. This has nothing to do with Him. Just as ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ had nothing to do with the tragic accident in January. You must be new to VFTW; note that if you refer to the President by name, your comment may be delayed. I can attest that Gary supports free speech and expression here, even if we don’t all agree with each other.
My thought was that Boeing will be drug through the.weeds because they allowed a car onto an active runway in Rio.
@Mark — Are you seeking to diminish the very real crimes that Boeing plead guilty to as it relates to the 737 Max? Hundreds lost their lives directly and indirectly due to that company’s unquenchable thirst for shareholder profits. However, that is not what happened here (this post above) at all–this seems like apparent accident, probably by the driver of the vehicle–so thanks for the ‘red-herring.’
Well, scratch Rio off my destination list. No way am I flying through an airport that thinks its a good idea to let ground vehicles enter an active in use runway…especially at night.
@Doug, as a former tower controller, I can tell you that if you are not going to fly to any airports that allow that, then your selection of airports that you will fly into will be severely curtailed.
@Doug Swalen — If that was all it takes, then there are a lot of places that you’ll need to avoid. Or, you can recognize that accidents can happen anywhere. Rio is fine. Besides, there are two airports there (SDU and GIG). This incident happened at Galeão, so maybe try Santos instead, if you must live in fear.
Some comments above show the empathy one has vs the contempt , interesting that defense was made for a person that was not remotely involved, astounding!
@ Michael A Holland
The defense of the person who “was not remotely involved“ came from one of his cult. He is a notorious crybaby and blames all of his problems on everyone else, so his colt always rushes to his defense
@Michael A Holland @WileyDog
Even though @David R. Miller suggested what he did (twice) the US President has still not been ‘blamed’ for this incident. Curious. It’s almost as if what David suggested was silly. (It was.)
Oh, and if you fellas are interested in defending ’empathy,’ please, by all means, head over to the comment thread from Gary’s other post today on the TSA banning ‘trans’ people from working.
Yeah, sure would be nice if folks didn’t demagogue on here. You can ignore or engage. Personally, I prefer to troll the trolls.