Virgin Australia aircraft badly damaged in collision with tug at Melbourne Airport

A 737 aircraft has been severely damaged after becoming detached from a tug vehicle and colliding with it at Melbourne Airport.

A Virgin Australia 737 will be out of action for weeks after a collision with a tug saw part of the fuselage torn open at Melbourne Airport.

A statement from Virgin Australia said the aircraft was being towed to a maintenance hangar in Melbourne on Sunday evening when it became disconnected from the tug vehicle.

“This caused the tug to impact the side of the aircraft,” a spokeswoman said.

No passengers were on board at the time, and no one was injured.

Given the aircraft was scheduled to undergo maintenance, there was no impact to Virgin Australia flights on Monday.

It was unclear for how long the aircraft would be out of action, but it was likely to be several weeks given the extent of the damage.

The Virgin Australia 737 torn open by the collision with a tug at Melbourne Airport.

Virgin and Melbourne Airport are investigating how the tug became separated from the aircraft.

The collision came a fortnight after a Qantas A380 was damaged by an aerobridge as it was being retracted at Sydney Airport.

A support beam of the aerobridge rammed the cowling of an engine on the superjumbo, leaving a sizeable hole.

In that incident, hundreds of passengers were delayed by almost a day as the aircraft was immediately taken out of service.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau opted not to conduct a full investigation into the collision, and was not expected to delve into the Virgin incident more deeply, due to the fact the aircraft wasn’t being prepared or used for flight.

Last week, the ATSB launched an investigation into a mid-air fire on board a Virgin 737 en route from Sydney to Hobart.

A lithium battery power bank in a passenger’s carry-on luggage was believed to have triggered the fire in an overhead locker. It was extinguished by cabin crew prior to landing.

The incident prompted Virgin Australia to change its policy on the carriage of power banks. It now requires passengers to keep the devices in sight at all times.

Virgin Australia operates Boeing 737s on its domestic and short-haul international routes after streamlining its fleet to one aircraft type in the wake of the airline’s financial collapse in 2020.

The regional arm of the airline, known as VARA, flies A320s and Fokker 100s, and is due to add new Embraer jets from later this year.

Originally published as Virgin Australia aircraft badly damaged in collision with tug at Melbourne Airport