How A New A340 Ended Up Written Off Before It Was Even Delivered

On November 15, 2007, a brand-new Airbus A340-600, due to be delivered to Etihad, was written off after an incident at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS). The quadjet was set to join the Abu Dhabi-based carrier’s fleet within the next few days, but the acquisition was eventually canceled. It is extremely rare for a brand-new aircraft worth about $275.4 million ($316.8 million today) to be written off as beyond economical repair, so let us look at how this happened.