Tail Sliced Like a Knife... Two Planes in Dramatic Collision in Vietnam

One Aircraft Has About Half of Its Tail Severed
Four, Including Pilots, Suspended from Duty
Chance of Dying in an Aircraft Accident Is 1 in 13.7 Million

An accident occurred on the runway of an airport in Hanoi, Vietnam, where the wing of one aircraft collided with the tail section of another aircraft. On June 28, the New York Post reported that at around 2:00 p.m. on June 27, a Vietnam Airlines passenger plane collided with another plane from the same airline on the runway of Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Vietnam. At the time, a Boeing 787 passenger plane bound for Ho Chi Minh City was taxiing on the runway for takeoff when it collided with an Airbus A321, which was waiting on the runway for departure to Dien Bien.

The scene of the accident was captured in a video filmed by a passenger onboard one of the planes. In the video, the wing of the Boeing 787 and the tail section of the Airbus A321 can be seen colliding. After the collision, the Boeing 787 did not stop and continued moving, resulting in approximately half of the A321's tail section being severed. The New York Post described the footage as showing "the right wing of the Boeing slicing through the Airbus’s tail stabilizer like a hot knife through butter." As a result of the accident, all 386 passengers aboard the two aircraft were transferred to alternative flights to reach their destinations. Fortunately, no injuries were reported in this incident.

Vietnam Airlines is currently investigating the cause of the accident and has reportedly suspended all four pilots who were operating the two aircraft. The airline has formed an independent team in cooperation with the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) to investigate the cause of the collision. According to preliminary findings, the media reported that the Airbus aircraft was not properly parked on the runway. Vietnam Airlines stated that it is working closely with aviation authorities to determine responsibility and to take preventive measures to avoid similar incidents in the future.

Meanwhile, according to a paper published in August last year in the Journal of Air Transport Management by Arnold Barnett, a professor of statistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the probability of a fatality in an aircraft accident worldwide between 2018 and 2022 was about one in 13.7 million. Aviation experts consistently explain that both the probability of an accident and the probability of a fatality are actually lower than the risks encountered in daily life.

Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aviation safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in New Jersey, told CNN, "The drive to the airport is more dangerous than being on the plane," adding, "In some countries, escalators are more dangerous than airplanes." However, although the frequency of accidents is low, when an aircraft accident does occur, it often results in large-scale casualties, leaving significant trauma not only for the victims and their families but also for society as a whole. This is why accident prevention and heightened vigilance remain crucial for those working in the industry.