Not a good evening for the kind folks at Airbus. A brand new Airbus A340-600, serial number 856, due to be delivered to Etihad Airways in a few days’ time had an accident during an engine run-up test.

Initial reports suggested that the aircraft may have jumped its wheel chocks before careening into the noise abatement wall at Airbus’ facilities in Toulouse. A later update from Airbus said the incident occurred while the aircraft was exiting the test area. In either scenario, the engines would need to have been running at a high RPM rate (known as %N1) to produce the type of thrust necessary to scale the wall.

Nine people were on board the aircraft including two members of Airbus staff and seven from Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies. Five people were treated for injuries. Remarkably, there were no fatalities. Subsequent images showing the flight deck area (”section 12″) on the aircraft show a considerable amount of damage.

No official decision has been made on that will happen to the airframe. Based on my limited knowledge, the aircraft will more than likely be written off with salvageable parts being removed for spares or for inclusion in another aircraft after recertification.

After the landing incident at Quito earlier this week involving a similar A340-600 from Spanish carrier Iberia, this hasn’t been a good week for the model. Despite a number of accident-related hull losses for the A340 family, there have been no fatalities to date.

[Image Copyright © Zubova Marina]