To celebrate the commencement of services on the A350, the airport authorities in Guayaquil decided it would be nice to honor the first departure of the aircraft type with a water cannon salute whereby airport fire trucks create an arch of water over the aircraft as it passes underneath.<\/p>\n
Water canon salutes are a traditional form of celebration in the airline industry and can be used to mark route launches, the arrival of a new aircraft type, and even pilot retirements.<\/p>\n
Some airlines have, however, banned their pilots from taking part in water cannon salutes due to the risk of damage being caused to the aircraft. A lesson that Iberia has just learned the hard way.<\/p>\n
As the A350-900 was taxiing for departure as flight IB-132\u00a0back to Madrid, the aircraft started to taxi underneath the arch of water formed by two fire trucks positioned on either side of the aircraft.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, it appears that the fire truck on the left-hand side of the plane had positioned itself too close. The wing tip of the aircraft collided with the extendable water arm of the fire truck, leaving a deep groove in the wing tip.<\/p>\n
Photos and videos of the incident were caught by planespotters at the airfield perimeter, as well as by shocked passengers on board the plane.<\/p>\n
In 2018, a water cannon salute involving a Saudia Airlines Airbus A320 went wrong as the plane approached the gate at Dubai International Airport, when the jet of water caused the overwing emergency slide to be deployed by accident.<\/p>\n
According to an official report into the incident<\/a>, when the jet of water hit the side of the aircraft, it did so with such force that it pushed in a panel hiding the overwing exit control panel.<\/p>\n The water then exerted pressure on the control panel, forcing it upwards and activating the overwing slide to deploy.<\/p>\n In this incident, investigators concluded that this wasn\u2019t down to user error, as the water turret that shoots the water out was malfunctioning and not reacting to user inputs.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \t\tSubscribe to our newsletter\t<\/p>\n \n\t\tNo spam, just a weekly roundup of the best aviation news that you don’t want to miss\t<\/p>\n \t Mateusz Maszczynski honed his skills as an international flight attendant at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying ever since… most recently for a well known European airline. Matt is passionate about the aviation industry and has become an expert in passenger experience and human-centric stories. Always keeping an ear close to the ground, Matt’s industry insights, analysis and news coverage is frequently relied upon by some of the biggest names in journalism.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780693827_519_cef9cb1579594cfd078520dbe0869fd066e56d5e439461f889f15c2dbeaa5417.png\")
\n\t\tMateusz Maszczynski<\/a>
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