Ed Force One Badly Damaged on ground in Chile

[Taxivasion]

https://www.facebook.com/ironmaiden/pos ... 0571972051

Just posted on the Iron Maiden FB page...

[redlaser]

Two people were injured when the plane broke loose from the tow truck,

[True North]

Wow! That is a helluva lot of damage from bumping into a tug on tow.

I think there might be more to this story.

[photofly]

That should buff out, no problem.

[dashx]

I wonder what they will use as a replacement in the interim?

[co-joe]

That should buff out, no problem.

Yeah, a quarter inch of paint and no one will notice.

[North Shore]

Wow! Looks like the tug really had the number of that jumbo. I wonder if the ace who was driving it is running for the Andes, before the killers are released from the hold, and some murders are committed!

[Shady McSly]

Man how awesome is that guy's life...he's a member of Iron Maiden AND flies a 747

[currysonic]

Chileans just didn't want them to leave!

[boeingboy]

Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden’s new-to-them B-747-400 “Ed Force One” currently fresh on their “Book of Souls World Tour” was badly damaged on the ground at Santiago Airport Chile today while being towed. Two engines and possibly an undercarriage were impacted. Initial details indicate that the B-747’s steering by-pass pin fell out on the tow turn, NLG locked up and during the tug’s continuing turn, towbar shear-pin sheared and loss of towbar/tug connection to the aircraft occurred. This was followed by the tug operator slowing up and the aircraft over-running it. Tugs cab was sheared off. Two ground employees injured. See photos below for damage.



As you may know Iron Maiden’s front-man Bruce Dickinson is a commercial pilot (over 20 years / 7,000 hours). He flew their B-757, and prior this current world tour he got his B-747 ticket on a simulator at Cardiff Aviation, his aircraft maintenance facility in Wales (Bruce is chairman and co-founder of Cardiff Aviation). He finished his last 2-3 weeks of training in Florida, right before flying to Sharjah in the UAE to pick up the B-747 aircraft, where it was being prepared for the tour. The aircraft carries 20 tons of show equipment plus the band and support staff.

[boeingboy]

more......

[J31]

Lots of things went wrong with that tow!

Was someone not riding the brakes on the flight deck?
Was the nose wheel steering hydraulics not turned off?
Nose wheel steering bypass pin "fell out"!?

I have never had a bypass pin fall out nor have ever heard of it.

If the tug turns the nose wheel with the steering hydraulics pressurized, the "weak link" in the tow bar goes off with a big bang! Very hard to miss.

[digits_]

Man how awesome is that guy's life...he's a member of Iron Maiden AND flies a 747

His audiogram must be ... interesting

[Siddley Hawker]

I wonder if Dickinson was flying it himself? He used to fly the 737 for Astraeus, been into Deer Lake a few times on that charter they used to run out of Luton? Stanstead? someplace.

[cgzro]

Man how awesome is that guy's life...he's a member of Iron Maiden AND flies a 747

My guess is that all that awesome is the result of a hell of a lot of very hard work. Kudos!

[ChrisEvans]

I wonder if Dickinson was flying it himself?

Yes he is flying it thru the entire tour - aircraft scheduled
to be back in service Wednesday.

[pelmet]

Its back in action. Saw it twice in one week a couple of weeks ago. Seattle and LA.

[boeingboy]

It was in YVR a few weeks ago as well.

It was not out of service very long. Only 10 days........2 new engines, inlet cowls, reverser and fan cowls, and some x-rays.

[Nark]

Seattle April 13th.

[ei ei owe]

If those guys were true rock stars there'd be footage of them inverted in a 4 G negative dive.