Ryanair Boeing 737 Sustains Damage at Stansted After Tug Driver Distraction

December 11, 2025 at 03:03 PM•2 min read

A Ryanair Boeing 737 sustained substantial damage at Stansted Airport after a ground tug driver became distracted.

Key Points

1A Ryanair Boeing 737 carrying 187 people crashed into a Stansted Airport fence on August 21, 2024, sustaining substantial rear damage.
2The incident occurred when a ground tug instructor, distracted by advising a trainee, drove past the designated tug release point.
3Despite substantial damage to the aircraft's rear, all 181 passengers and six crew members onboard were unharmed.
4Stansted Airport has since doubled the length and improved the visibility of tug release point markings to prevent future incidents.

A Ryanair Boeing 737 aircraft carrying 181 passengers and six crew members sustained substantial damage after colliding with a blast barrier at London Stansted Airport (STN) on August 21, 2024. The incident occurred while the jet was being pushed back by a ground tug, ultimately striking a fence after overshooting its designated tug release point (TRP). The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) report detailed the sequence of events leading to the crash, which fortunately resulted in no injuries.

The investigation revealed that the ground tug instructor, who had taken over controls from a trainee, was primarily focused on advising the trainee during the pushback maneuver. This distraction caused him to drive past the TRP ground markings. The instructor later stated that the markings were "not very prominent" and "obscured" by the aircraft. The trainee, despite noticing the instructor failing to stop, did not intervene, assuming he was aware of his actions. The ground handling operation was conducted by Blue Handling, a team from facility management provider ABM, which serves Ryanair at Stansted.

Following the incident, the instructor underwent drug and alcohol tests, which he passed. While the rear of the Boeing 737 sustained damage, the airport's fire service attended the scene, and no injuries were reported among those onboard. In response to the accident, London Stansted Airport has implemented changes, doubling the length of TRP markings from 50cm to one meter and painting them on both sides of the centerline for improved visibility. This incident follows a separate collision in October 2023 at Stansted, where another Ryanair aircraft's wing struck a passenger assistance vehicle, with the AAIB attributing that event partly to driver fatigue and distraction.