Iron Maiden's tour plane, Ed Force One, was damaged in a collision with a tow truck at Chile’s Santiago International Airport on Saturday (March 12). Billboard reports that the Boeing 747 was being moved to refuel and prepare for a flight to Argentina, where the band were scheduled to perform. h...
Iron Maiden‘s tour plane, Ed Force One, was damaged in a collision with a tow truck at Chile’s Santiago International Airport on Saturday (March 12).
Billboard reports that the Boeing 747 was being moved to refuel and prepare for a flight to Argentina, where the band were scheduled to perform.
#EdForceOne badly damaged in Chile. Argentina shows expected to go ahead. https://t.co/9j5MYcpOGH pic.twitter.com/ck65Bv9cOk
— Iron Maiden (@IronMaiden) March 12, 2016
According to a post on the band’s website, “Ed Force One was this morning tethered to a tow truck to be taken for refuelling prior to flying over the Andes to Cordoba for the next show. On moving the steering pin that is part of the mechanism that connects the ground tug to the aircraft seemingly fell out. On making a turn the aircraft had no steering and collided with the ground tug badly damaging the undercarriage, two of the aircrafts engines and injuring two ground tug operators, both of whom have been taken to hospital. We hope of course that they make a full and speedy recovery and we will be closely monitoring their progress. The flight engineers are on site and evaluating the damage, but their initial report is that the engines have suffered large damage and will require an extended period of maintenance and possibly two new engines.”
A later post revealed that, “We are happy to tell our fans in Cordoba that our Killer Krew has sorted out all logistics for us to be there with our full show for you all tomorrow. We expect no disruption to the tour in any way and are looking for a replacement 747 Ed Force One while our current beauty is healed. More news on that later. Until then, believe me, we will get to you all on this tour one way or another wherever you are.
“We are also delighted to say that we have been officially informed that the two Chilean airport staff who were injured following the malfunction of the tow truck connecting bolt will make a complete recovery. Best wishes to them and their families.”
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