Air Malta plane damaged in Moscow

An Air Malta Boeing 737 was hit by a passenger jetty at Moscow's Domodedovo airport yesterday, forcing the airline to send a replacement aircraft, together with technical personnel and spare parts.

The plane, operating flight KM561, was due to return to Malta at 8 a.m. yesterday but the passengers are now expected to arrive at 6 a.m. today on the replacement aircraft.

Air Malta would not say exactly what part of the plane was damaged. Nor could it give a preliminary estimate of the cost but a spokesman said it was presumed to be one of the aircraft's doors since the incident was caused by the arm that connects the airport terminal to the aircraft for passengers to embark and disembark.

The incident was not that serious but was bad enough to prevent the plane from flying out.

Since the aircraft could not be repaired immediately, the passengers were transferred to a nearby hotel, Air Malta said.

The airline could not confirm, however, whether the passengers were on board the plane at the time of the incident.

"It is regrettable that the ground staff at Domodedovo airport damaged the Air Malta aircraft, causing discomfort to our passengers," an airline spokesman said.

"After evaluating all available options, we decided it was best to send out a relief aircraft and crew to bring in passengers and ferry the damaged plane back to base."

The spokesman confirmed that the rest of Air Malta flights operated according to schedule yesterday.