British Airways plane suffers tail strike as it attempts landing at London's Heathrow Airport

A British Airways aircraft suffered a tail strike on approach to London Heathrow Airport, with footage of the moment circulating as the incident unfolded. RNZ reported that the tail strike occurred during a landing attempt at Heathrow, describing the event as a dramatic moment on the runway captured on video. The RNZ piece does not specify the aircraft type, exact time, injuries, or the precise flight details, and notes that investigators or formal statements about causes were not included in the material provided.

Simple Flying, citing an AAIB bulletin and additional details, identifies the aircraft as a DHL-branded Airbus A300-600F operated by European Air Transport Leipzig on approach to Heathrow. The report states that the tail strike occurred on the initial landing attempt, after which the crew initiated a go-around. On the second landing attempt, the jet touched down again but was subsequently written off. Simple Flying notes that the material does not provide information on injuries or the exact number of people aboard, and confirms only that the aircraft was a freighter operating at Heathrow when the tail strike occurred, leading to the eventual write-off as reported in the referenced AAIB bulletin.

The DHL A300-600F’s involvement is reinforced by the Simple Flying summary, which states that the aircraft worn DHL branding and operated by European Air Transport Leipzig, with the tail strike occurring during the first approach and a second landing following a go-around. The report emphasizes that no other aircraft were reported as involved in the incident, and that the second touchdown was followed by the aircraft being written off. The timing and flight number details are not provided in the material from Simple Flying or AAIB, and there is no explicit mention of injuries in that source material.

AAIB-related reporting in the Simple Flying material indicates that the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch contributed to the information surrounding the incident, citing the bulletin for the detailed circumstances. The emergency-response specifics—such as fire services, airport authorities, or recovery operations—are not laid out in the provided material. Similarly, there is no stated casualty information or preliminary conclusions beyond noting the write-off status of the aircraft after the second landing.

Beyond the Heathrow tail-strike report, PYOK presents context surrounding the incident by noting investigators were dispatched to the scene, with the incident described as involving a British Airways Airbus A321 on approach to Heathrow that struck the tail twice during landing. The PYOK material confirms the involvement of investigators but does not supply casualty details, exact flight numbers, or other technical specifics about the aircraft. The author information identifies Mateusz Maszczynski as the reporter.

FlightGlobal’s coverage frames broader aviation-industry context around the time of the Heathrow event, including Heathrow Airport’s leadership and government support for a third runway, without offering new technical specifics about the incident itself. The report recounts remarks from Heathrow’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye and notes political momentum behind expansion, but does not provide dates, times, aircraft type beyond what earlier sources stated, or investigative findings related to the tail strike. The inclusion of this material serves to situate the Heathrow incident within wider industry discussion rather than to elaborate on the tail-strike event’s technical aspects.

Le Monde.fr’s material pool centers on an Israeli settler representative, Yossi Dagan, being turned back at a Paris airport and banned from entering French territory, with France citing security-based immigration action. This report is not about the Heathrow tail strike and does not contribute factual details about the British Airways incident. The other items in the Le Monde.fr collection pertain to different aviation-security items, including a Fort Lauderdale incident as described by WWLTV and Patch, which are unrelated to the Heathrow event and to the BA tail strike itself.

Collectively, the sources identify a DHL-branded Airbus A300-600F operated by European Air Transport Leipzig as the aircraft involved in the Heathrow tail-strike sequence, with a first landing attempt ending in tail impact and a second landing attempt that resulted in the aircraft being written off, according to the Simple Flying material citing an AAIB bulletin. The RNZ report provides the initial breaking-news framing of the tail-strike event at Heathrow with on-video footage but without specific aircraft type or casualty information. The PYOK piece corroborates that investigators were dispatched, noting a British Airways A321 designation in its description of the tail strike, though the later Simple Flying and AAIB-based reporting centers the freighter operation as the primary aircraft involved in the incident. The remaining sources contribute to broader industry context rather than to the granular facts of the incident’s aircraft, timing, or casualties. No source in the provided material confirms injuries, fatalities, exact flight numbers, or precise timings beyond the general sequence of events.