Turkish Airlines flight THY696 was operated with an Airbus A321-231 (registration TC-JMM) from Ercan (North Cyprus) to Istanbul Ataturk airport on 13-05-2018.

After Turkish Airlines flight THY696 landed, was instructed by ATC to proceed to stand 217.

In the same time, an Airbus A330-300 (registration HL7792) operated by Asiana airlines and flight AAR552, from Istanbul to Incheon (South Korea) was cleared to taxi to the departure runway.

Turkish Airlines flight THY696

    The Airbus A321 approached the parking 217 but did not enter the stand, stopping 15 meters before the stop position because of some signal cones were in the maneuvering area.

The Airbus Asiana A330 was taxing right behind the Turkish airlines Airbus A321 and hit the tail of the Airbus A321 which was almost completely torn off. No fire developed, only some hydraulic leakage from the rudder actuators. Although an extensive aircraft damage, no evacuation was deemed necessary, since no fuel leak or fire was detected. As probable cause, the Transportation Safety Review Group came up with the following statement.

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As the probable cause of the accident that resulted in the wing tip of the Airbus 330-300 type aircraft with the registration mark HL7792 making the Istanbul-Seoul flight hitting the tail of the THY aircraft;

• The TC-JMM cockpit crew, while focusing on foreign objects in the parking area and TGS personnel, lost situational awareness that the aircraft violated the G taxiway and did not report this situation to the ATC unit
• While the HL7792 crew should be performing taxi procedures, not being able to focus and not distinguish between wings
• TGS personnel not complying with the rules and regulations in the Ground Operations Manual (GOM),

As a result of the joint evaluation of the above issues, it is thought that the accident occurred due to the human factor