Summary

  • A LATAM Airlines Boeing 777-300ER was involved in a tail strike incident at Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP).
  • The incident happened as the aircraft attempted to take off from MXP, with the 777-300ER scraping its tail on the runway for several seconds.
  • Following the event, the aircraft dumped fuel before returning to MXP.

A LATAM Airlines Boeing 777-300ER suffered a significant tail strike incident in Milan, Italy, with a video of the incident showing the aircraft scraping the tail against the surface of the runway as it attempted to climb out of its departure airport.

Scraping the tail

The incident happened on July 9, as the LATAM Airlines Boeing 777-300ER, registered as PT-MUG, was operating flight LA8073 from Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP) to Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport (GRU).

However, as the aircraft was taking off from the Italian airport, its tail scraped against the runway for a few seconds, according to video footage of the incident, which was shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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Diverting to MXP

While the aircraft lifted off and began climbing at 11:26 local time (UTC +2), the LATAM Airlines 777-300ER never went beyond 5,900 feet (1,798 meters) of altitude. Subsequently, the widebody aircraft proceeded to dump fuel for around an hour, landing at MXP at 12:37.

LATAM Airlines Boeing 777-300ER landing at LHR shutterstock_2109071732

Photo: BoeingMan777 | Shutterstock

The LATAM Airlines jet proceeded to taxi to the gate without further incident. Ch-aviation data indicated that the aircraft has been undergoing repairs at MXP, with the aircraft having no subsequent scheduled flights after the incident on July 9.

The site’s data showed that Boeing delivered the 777-300ER to LATAM Airlines on October 23, 2012, shortly after the aircraft had its first flight on October 4, 2012. Since then, it has accumulated 41,578 flight hours (FH) and 4,828 flight cycles (FC).

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Five weekly flights from MXP

According to data from the aviation analytics company Cirium, LATAM Airlines was the only airline operating flights from MXP to South America, connecting Milan with its hub at GRU with five weekly flights in July.

During the upcoming winter season, LATAM Airlines will increase its weekly frequencies from MXP to GRU to six, which will increase the route’s weekly seats from 1,895 to 2,274, which in turn, will increase the weekly available seat kilometers (ASK) from 17.9 million to 21.5 million.

LATAM Airlines Boeing 777-300ER landing

Photo: Tom Boon | Simple Flying

Since 2018, when Alitalia, the predecessor of ITA Airways, and Air Italy, an airline in which Qatar Airways had a minority stake, ended flights to Aeropuerto Internacional de Recife-Guararapes (REC), Pinto Martins – Fortaleza International Airport (FOR), and Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), no other airline apart from LATAM Airlines has served any routes to South America from MXP.

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