A strange and tragic incident occurred in Guinea over the weekend involving a motorcycle and an Airbus A320 airliner which seemingly collided during landing.
The TAP Air Portugal flight from Lisbon to Conakry, Guinea, was coming in for landing slightly later than had been scheduled. Shortly after the flight touched down, it was reported that the plane collided with a motorcycle that was being ridden on the runway. Tragically both of the people on the motorcycle are reported to have been killed in the incident.
The motorcycle was dragged a distance along the taxiway, while it seems it collided with the A320 jet engine. The bike was partially ingested into the engine in the collision, rendering it unrecognisable and causing significant damage to the plane.
It’s not clear how the incident came to be, although the person riding the motorcycle is reported to have been a member of the airport’s security team. Air travel website, onemileatatime.com reports that he was in fact one of the team members responsible for securing and maintaining the airports exterior security fencing.
How can a motorcycle and airliner collide in such a way?
Airports are some of the most tightly controlled areas on earth, both in the air and on the ground. That does raise the question of how could such an incident take place. When you add to this the fact that planes are by their nature, large, noisy, and well illuminated (especially while landing and taxiing), the circumstances surrounding this incident are even more suspicious.
Whatever the reason, there is bound to be an extremely thorough investigation, from the airline, airport operator, and aviation authority in Guinea. We’ll update this article when they arrive.
