On October 4, 2024, a Ryanair plane and an airport assistance truck crashed at Stansted Airport. It has been revealed in the investigation that the truck driver could have been fatigued and distracted with his duty, due to which he was not able to see the plane ahead of him and thus he went on to commit the accident. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

On 4 October 2024, a freak accident occurred at Stansted Airport in Essex between a Ryanair plane and an airport assistance truck. The collision took place when the Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS, with precedence, was turning towards its assigned parking area after its arrival from a flight. Going to another stand, the truck crashed into the right wing of the plane.

An investigation into the crash has been carried out by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. They say that the driver of the truck was probably distracted and tired at the moment of impact. This effect is called “inattentional blindness,” where one becomes blind to the event right in front of one because of other factors of attention.

Inattentional blindness occurs when people are preoccupied by some other entity and as such, miss perceiving an unexpected object within the field of vision. In this case, the truck driver did not seem to be conscious of the Ryanair plane until the last second. From the CCTV cameras installed on the vehicles themselves, it was noticed that the driver did not look once through his left window toward the plane. It wasn’t until five seconds after the plane already began to turn that he saw it. By then, it was too late to avoid a collision.

Despite the truck’s full braking and reversing, it was too late to clear the plane’s path. The crash left visible damage on the wing of the plane and the truck. None of the over 100 passengers or the six crew members onboard the Ryanair flight was injured.

The truck driver already had a history of issues with driving. Just six weeks prior to this incident, he had been involved in another collision with another vehicle. The AAIB report showed that the driver was relatively new to working at the airport and that the environment challenged him. He was also frustrated by the way tasks had been allocated that day.

It was noted in the report that quite probably the driver’s frustration and fatigue have affected his performance. He himself reports feeling annoyed at the busy morning and last-minute nature of his tasks, although the number was normal for that time of year. It is almost as if the driver’s workload was combined with his emotional state to affect poor performance.

In the investigation, it was also acknowledged that the driver was struggling with his job and did not know the airport. As written in the report, “The driver was relatively inexperienced in the airport environment, and his account and history suggested that he found it challenging.” His inexperience, coupled with fatigue and frustration, could have led him to be less attentive and therefore miss relevant details, such as the oncoming Ryanair aircraft.

The airport authority and the vehicle operator have since issued safety notices to remind all drivers to be vigilant and observe proper driving precautions, aiming to prevent similar accidents from occurring in the future.

In a nutshell, the Ryanair plane getting hit by the airport assistance truck could most probably have been due to the distraction and drowsiness of the truck driver. This means that a huge contribution was from the driver’s inattentional blindness—failing to notice the plane until it was too late. No one was hurt, although damage was caused to the plane and the truck. This incident is evidence of the need for vigilance and proper attention by all staff at the airport, especially within busy and pressurized working environments.