The American Airlines Boeing 737-800, came in from Miami on Monday night. It was scheduled to fly as American Airlines 2036 from New York LaGuardia to Charlotte on Tuesday morning. That didn’t quite happen.
Instead, a tug got caught underneath the aircraft. It’s amazing and cringeworthy to watch at the same time. Thankfully everyone involved is ok. However the tow driver was taken to the hospital as a precaution. There weren’t any passengers or crew on board the aircraft at the time.
— WhatIsNewYork (@whatisny) August 2, 2022
And here’s the aftermath, with everyone wondering how on earth they’re going to dislodge that thing.
Wild scene at #LGA this morning. Tug driver was pinned but uninjured #whatisnewyork (video source unknown) pic.twitter.com/bsM48azlKy
— WhatIsNewYork (@whatisny) August 2, 2022
An American Airlines spokesperson offers,
Early this morning, an aircraft under tow at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) collided with a super tug operated by American Airlines personnel while being repositioned from the hangar to the gate. Safety is our highest priority, and we’ve launched an internal investigation to learn more.
The occurrence aircraft, N949NN, has been in the fleet for 8 years. They managed to dislodge the tug and move the plane to the hangar for maintenance inspection. Passengers were sent to a nearby gate where another aircraft operated their flight.
those videos are just cringe-worthy to watch. The operators clearly had no training or clue of what they were doing. It could have ended up much worse but thankfully did not
toby strikes again
LaGuardia airport is testing a new aircraft speed bump.
Looks like tooow pin dislodged and plane momentum keep it going and tug driver lost control.
But what do I know?
It seems that the Tug was using a tow strap. From what I know having worked at an airline for 36 years, that a only a tow bar could be used. Reason being that what happened in this incident, could not happen with a tow bar.
Looks like he was going too fast and hit the brakes. The weight of the plane wasn’t cooperating and caused a jack knife which sheared the towbar off then running over the tug. Thankfully the guy hit dirt fast and wasn’t hurt.