- LATAM Airlines' Boeing 787-8, registered as CC-BBF, becomes the third commercially active aircraft of this type to be dismantled.
- The scrapping decision followed a towing incident at Bogota El Dorado Luis Carlos Galan Sarmiento International Airport, causing significant damage to the aircraft's fuselage.
- This scrapping follows the dismantling of two Boeing 787s owned by Norwegian, indicating possible challenges for the model on the second-hand market.
LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-8 Scrapped After Incident in Bogota
BOGOTA —A Boeing 787-8 operated by LATAM Airlines' Chilean subsidiary has been disassembled, becoming the third commercial aircraft of this type to be scrapped, AeroTime. aero reports. The decision to dismantle the 9.2-year-old plane came after an incident this past May at Bogota's El Dorado Luis Carlos Galan Sarmiento International Airport. During repositioning by a towing vehicle, the towbar broke, causing the tug to become lodged under the plane's fuselage.
Subsequent inspection revealed considerable damage to the aircraft's lower fuselage, including deep cuts in its composite material. According to available flight data, the now-dismantled aircraft had recorded 10,300 Flight Hours (FH) and 1,575 Flight Cycles (FC), with an average flight duration of six hours and 32 minutes.
Pictures circulating on social media platforms like Twitter depicted the aircraft in a state of disassembly, sans tail and wings. The images also captured multiple workers and equipment around the 787, underscoring the scale of the dismantling process.
The scrapping of this particular LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-8, registered as CC-BBF, highlights challenges facing the aircraft model on the used market. This case follows two similar situations involving Norwegian's Boeing 787s. Those planes, registered as VP-CVL and VP-CVM, were stored at Glasgow Prestwick Airport (PIK) in Scotland since May and September of 2019, respectively. Ultimately, they were scrapped in February 2023 due to a lack of interested buyers for the second-hand aircraft. Both had been initially delivered to Norwegian in 2013.
It's worth noting that in addition to the commercial 787-8s that have been scrapped, Boeing also dismantled a 787-8 testbed with the Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 40694 back in April 2018.
