An airline manager criticised British Airways yesterday for trying to blame his pilots for a ground collision between two aircraft at Heathrow.

Air accident investigators are studying the incident, in which the wingtips of a Sri Lankan Airlines Airbus A340 and a BA Boeing 747 clashed on a taxiway just short of the northern runway. A section of the BA aircraft’s wing was sliced off. No one was hurt.

Passengers said the Airbus, carrying 286 passengers and crew, appeared to be slightly behind the BA plane, carrying 328, when the collision occurred.

BA sources yesterday blamed the Sri Lankan Airlines pilots because the BA aircraft was stationary, with its parking brake on.

But Krishan Perera, Sri Lankan Airlines’ Heathrow manager, said BA was wrong to prejudge the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) inquiry.

He told The Times: “It is not normal to try to blame the other airline at this early stage. I had a long chat with the duty operations manager from BAA [Heathrow's owner] and, according to him, both aircraft were moving.”

Annasofie Flamand, 32, a Danish journalist who was on the Sri Lankan Airlines flight, said: “We turned our wing, almost hit what looked like the tail end of the BA flight, and we ended up chopping off a bit of wing. It cut through it like butter. It’s pretty incredible to see something like that in a place like Heathrow. Thank God it was on the ground and not in the air.”

The incident was also witnessed by newly-weds Darren Beck, 34, and Caroline Beck, 22, from Portsmouth, who were heading to the Maldives for their honeymoon. Mr Beck said: “There was a bang and the plane stopped very suddenly. People were calm on the flight, but everyone was confused.”

It was the second collision on the ground in three months involving a BA aircraft at the airport. On July 27 a BA Boeing 777 reversed from its stand into a BA Airbus A321 which had arrived from Zurich.

Since 2002 there have been nine collisions between aircraft on the ground at Heathrow.

The AAIB issued a report in 2005 which expressed alarm about the number of aircraft hitting vehicles, gates and piers at Heathrow. The cramped conditions at the airport mean that stands and holding points near runways are almost always occupied and pilots often have to steer a narrow course past other aircraft.

David Learmount, safety editor of Flight International, said that the arrival next year of the 550-seat A380 double-decker would add to the difficulties. The A380 has a wingspan of just under 80m, 15m more than the 747 which is currently the biggest passenger aircraft using Heathrow. Learmount said: “There probably won’t be any incidents at first because pilots will be so scared of a collision with an A380 they won’t go anywhere near it. But there could be problems later.”

Ground collisions involving aircraft wings can pose a risk to passengers if a fuel tank is ruptured. But the tanks in the wings of large aircraft are positioned at least 3m from the tip.

The AAIB will be checking tapes of transmissions between air traffic controllers and the pilots to see whether there was any misunderstanding over which aircraft had priority.

A spokesman for National Air Traffic Services said that, regardless of any controller’s instruction, “it is the pilot’s responsibility to ensure that they have sufficient room for manoeuvre”.

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