An Emirates Airbus A380 landing in Nice was damaged after reportedly striking a drone. One of the plane’s wing slats suffered damage from the collision, and the jet remains grounded four days after the incident.
On August 18th, Emirates flight EK77 from Dubai International Airport (DXB) to Nice Côte d’Azur Airport (NCE) touched down at 13:08 local time, seemingly without incident. However, upon landing, it was discovered that one of the A380’s right leading-edge wing slats had been damaged from a suspected midair drone collision.
An Emirates spokesperson told AeroTime, “Emirates can confirm that flight EK 77 from Dubai to Nice on 18 August landed normally and passengers and crew safely disembarked. Upon landing, engineers discovered some damage to a slat in the right wing, and the aircraft will remain on the ground to undergo further assessments.”
France’s accident investigation body, BEA (Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety), has confirmed it is looking into the incident but has not confirmed the involvement of a drone. Emirates also stated that it has “no information on the origin that caused the damage to the right wing.”
The affected aircraft (registration: A6-EOM) remains in Nice four days after the suspected collision. The eight-year-old plane was delivered to Emirates in August 2015.
It received a replacement part for its damaged wing on August 20th, but the airline is keeping it grounded in Nice for now, stating that safety is its main priority. The return flight to Dubai was canceled and operated by a replacement aircraft (registration: A6-EOB) the next day.
There has been a lot of concern regarding unauthorized drone activity in and around airports since drones became increasingly available to the public in the early 2010s. Several near-misses with commercial aircraft have occurred over the years, including this British Airways Airbus A321 flying out of London Heathrow (LHR) in December 2020.
One of the most notorious drone-related incidents happened at London Gatwick (LGW) in December 2018 during the busy Christmas travel rush. It forced the airport to close for two days, impacting 1,000 flights and around 150,000 passengers – Gatwick has since suffered several more drone incidents, as recently as this May.
Dublin Airport has also been an unfortunate target of regular unauthorized drone activity – in February, the airport was forced to suspend operations three days in a row due to repeated drone sightings. The airport has now resorted to anti-drone technology, which works by jamming the frequency that drones use to operate.
Simple Flying
