Iron Maiden’s “Ed Force One” plane was damaged in an accident at an airport in Chile this morning (March 12). According a statement released by Iron Maiden:
“Ed Force One was this morning tethered to a tow truck [at Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport just outside Santiago] to be taken for refueling prior to flying over the Andes to Cordoba for the next show. On moving, the steering pin that is part of the mechanism that connects the ground tug to the aircraft seemingly fell out. On making a turn, the aircraft had no steering and collided with the ground tug badly damaging the undercarriage, two of the air crafts engines and injuring two ground tug operators, both of whom have been taken to hospital. We hope, of course, that they make a full and speedy recovery and we will be closely monitoring their progress.
The flight engineers are on site and evaluating the damage, but their initial report is that the engines have suffered large damage and will require an extended period of maintenance and possibly two new engines. “We are currently making contingency arrangements to get to the show in Cordoba [Argentina] tomorrow with band, crew and equipment intact. Fortunately the 20 tons of equipment had not been loaded onto Ed Force One at the time of the accident. Although this is tragic for our beautiful plane, we do not expect this to affect our concert schedule including the next two shows in Cordoba and Buenos Aires. And we hope to find a new Ed Force One to continue this adventure with us in the near future.
To finish on a high note, however, our visit to Chile was a huge success with 58,000 fans coming to the show as totally brilliant as ever in the Stadium Nacional last night. We love you guys!”
source: Blabbermouth/Mirror.co.uk