On April 15, 2024, a Virgin Atlantic long-haul aircraft was again involved in a ground incident. An Airbus A350-100 parked in New York-JFK was hit in the engine area by a gate gourmet catering vehicle.

The long-haul jet with the registration G-VDOT, which has the “Ruby Slipper” image, is affected. At the time of the incident, this Airbus A350-1000 was seven years old. In 2020, the aircraft was taken over used by Virgin Atlantic and has been serving the UK-based airline ever since.

The G-VDOT was parked at New York-JFK after a flight from London-Heathrow. The aircraft was scheduled to fly back to the United Kingdom on the evening of April 15, 2024 under flight number VS26. This didn't happen at first because the connection had to be deleted due to the damage.

Virgin Atlantic explained that a Gate Gourmet catering vehicle had rolled into an engine cowling. There were no passengers on board at that time. There was only material damage, but it was necessary for the Airbus A350-100 to be extensively examined. This resulted in the planned Heathrow flight being cancelled.

When contacted, a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: “Flight VS26 from New York JFK to London Heathrow has been canceled following an incident at the gate at JFK in which the hood of a stationary Virgin Atlantic aircraft and the car of a catering service provider rolled into the hood,” the airline confirmed in a statement. We can confirm that there were no customers on board the aircraft at the time.”

This is not the first ground incident in April 2024 involving a Virgin Atlantic aircraft. On April 6, 2024, a Boeing 787-9 from this provider made a flight at London Heathrow Airportnpleasant acquaintance with an Airbus A350-1000 from competitor British Airways. Here too, only material damage was caused, which, however, is expensive for both providers and their insurance companies.