Apparently a Korean Air A330 collided with another aircraft on the ground at Yangon International Airport, but didn’t realize it and took off right after, until the control tower notified the plane of what had happened.

Per Business Insider: “On Friday, a Korean Airlines jet collided with another aircraft on the ground at Yangon International Airport.

But instead of stopping to assess the damage, the airliner — with 134 passengers and 11 crew onboard — continued with its take-off procedure.

The jet, a widebody Airbus A330, clipped the tail of a neighboring Bangkok Airways plane with the tip of its wing. 

According to the AP, the pilots of the Korean Airbus didn’t notice the collision, and none of the aircraft’s collision warnings sounded to alert the crew.

It was, however, reported that ground staff at the airport witnessed the incident and immediately notified the the control tower of the damage.

The jet, Flight 472, returned to the Myanmar capital shortly after taking off for the five hour flight to Seoul, after the officials determined a collision had occurred.

No injuries were reported and the delayed passengers boarded another flight for the South Korean capital later in the day.”

Bottom Line

Fortunately none of the passengers were injured, and once the pilots did realize what happened, the plane did return to Myanmar where with landed safely. This just goes to show you even with all the technology today in aviation, relying on the control tower to visually observe takeoffs is important.