L2025-03 Collision between Airliner and Passenger Stair at Helsinki Airport on August 28, 2025

02.07.2026

The left wing of an airplane struck a stationary passenger stair during arrival at the apron at Helsinki airport on August 28, 2025. The collision did not result in injury to persons, but the wing and the stairs sustained damage.

An arrival team of a ground handling service provider was waiting for the airplane on the apron. One of the team members offered to operate the stair in addition to his other planned tasks because the vehicle needed to be moved to a position that would have allowed further movement after the airplane’s arrival, and dollies left in a no-parking zone between adjacent stands restricted freedom of movement. The operator stopped the vehicle in a holding position in an equipment restraint area. As seen from the driving cab, the vehicle appeared to remain outside the stand boundary.

The flight crew saw the vehicle but assumed it was sufficiently far from the stand boundary and focused on a docking guidance system display on the terminal wall.

Ramp team members noticed that a collision was impending and gave the flight crew a stop signal, and the team leader started running toward the guidance system emergency stop button, also on the terminal wall. At the moment the airplane the airplane’s wing hit the canopy of the stairs, he pushed the button. The pilots stopped the plane in response to the stop signals.

The airport area has been developed in phases, and space utilization has been determined by increasing passenger numbers and airplane sizes. Locally confined stands affect safe ground handling, which leads to parking against rules, and deviation from instructions have become an undesirable norms. Some apron markings are conflicting and difficult to interpret.

Although ground handling service providers report occurrences actively within each company and carry out independent risk assessment, a common reporting system that would be open to all stakeholders to promote learning of lessons from occurrences and close calls across organizational boundaries has not been sufficiently used at the airport.

An airport can be likened to a seaport or terminal in that it shared by independent contractors. Improving safety in a common workplace requires negotiations and agreements between stakeholders and a coordinating body to collect observations from stakeholders and carry out overall risk assessment.

Authority’s monitoring is based on operators’ self-audits. Although it may appear that there is nothing untoward in the operation of organizations at the airport, risks related to the coordination at working level will not necessarily be recognized.

Collisions between airplanes and ground equipment occur but they are usually minor. Confined spaces, deviation from instructions and incomplete markings can easily result in accidents and incidents.

In order to improve ground handling safety, the Safety Investigation Authority Finland recommends that:

1. Finavia establishes a risk assessment method that is common to all operators at Finavia’s airports and assumes the coordinator’s role in matters related to overall apron safety. [2026-S009]
2. Finavia restores and harmonizes apron markings and the way information is presented in charts and on information boards. Particular attention shall be paid on the markings of overlapping equipment restraint areas and on their readability. [2026-S008]

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