On Saturday night, a Fars Air Qeshm Boeing 747 Freighter tipped backward at Doha's Hamad International Airport (DOH) due to a cargo load imbalance.

Fars Air Qeshm Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 Freighter ended up on its tail. Photo: Aeronews.

What are the details?

Fars Air Qeshm Flight QFZ9964 from Yerevan, Armenia (EVN) to Doha, Qatar (DOH) arrived at the Hamad International Airport at 2:50 am local time.

According to Aeronews, cargo handlers unloaded the Boeing 747-281, registration number EP-FAB, incorrectly. As a matter of fact, they unloaded the cargo from the nose of the aircraft first. Consequently, the aircraft became tail heavy and tipped backward.

Boeing 747 Freighter Damage
The aircraft tipped backward during unloading. Photo: Aeronews.

At this time, it is not clear what kind of damage the aircraft sustained. Additionally, we do not know if anybody was injured.

Fars Air Qeshm

Fars Air Qeshm is an Iranian cargo airline. The airline operates only one aircraft, the damaged Boeing 747 -281.

The airline's headquarters are located at the Qeshm International Airport in Dayrestan, Iran.

Last fall, Western intelligence agencies suspected the airline of smuggling weapons into Beirut, Lebanon, after a couple of suspicious flights. Allegedly, the airline used the aircraft to deliver weapons to Hezbollah.

Overall

Incidents of aircraft tipping backward are really not that uncommon. As a matter of fact, some aircraft are more prone to tipping than others. One example of an aircraft that tips rather easily is the Boeing 737-900. Consequently, several airlines use special tail stands for these aircraft when they are parked.

Additionally, this type of incident is typically more common for cargo aircraft. After all, it is very unlikely that all passengers on a passenger aircraft will rush to the back of the aircraft all of a sudden, leaving the front of the aircraft is pretty much empty.

Anyhow, it is definitely unfortunate for Fars Air Qeshm that its only aircraft sustained damage due to the incident.

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