On the 11th of February 2025, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 was cleared for take-off at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Boeing (registered in Brazil as PS-GPP) was operated by GOL Transportes Aeros, a low-cost airline based in Rio de Janeiro. That morning, it was scheduled for flight G3-1674, a late-night domestic flight from Rio de Janeiro-Galeão airport to Pinto-Martins International in Fortaleza.

There were six crew, presumably two flight crew and four cabin crew, and 103 passengers on board ready for a 22:05 departure for the three-hour flight to Fortaleza. The flight crew entered runway 10, a 13, 123 foot concrete runway. After being cleared, the Boeing began accelerating along the runway. Passengers said that they were close to becoming airborne when there was jolt. One reported that he felt the aircraft braking and wondered if there was enough runway left for them to come to a halt. The aircraft veered right and then left, regaining the centre line as the pilots applied full braking. The following video is a compilation of passenger videos.

Globo reported that the aircraft was travelling over 200 km/h at the point of the collision.

The captain announced over the PA system that they had collided with a vehicle. The OP News video below is skipped forward to the interactions between the captain in the Boeing and the Rio Galeão tower controller. If we have any Brazilian Portuguese speakers reading, I’d love a confirmation on the transcript.

Here is a machine translation with some tidying of the conversation between the captain of flight GOL1674 and the tower controller.

Pilot: Galeão Tower, GOL1674, aborting take-off. There’s a car in the middle of the runway.

Tower: Repeat, 1674?!

Pilot: Aborted take-off. We hit a car in the middle of runway one zero.

Tower: Confirm, was the car in the runway or entering from [taxiway] Charlie.

Pilot: On the runway centre line, on the runway centreline. Collided.

Tower: Understood, 1674. Confirm collision with the vehicle?

Pilot: Affirmative. Request assistance.

According to media, the captain then clarified that they needed someone to check the aircraft, as they didn’t know if they would be able to leave the runway. “We collided with the car in the middle of the runway. We don’t know if we struck the engine, the landing gear. We don’t know what is the damage.”

They struck this airport vehicle, which used to be a Chevrolet S10 pickup truck.

Amazingly, the Boeing 737 Max 8 took very little damage and there were no injuries. All passengers and crew disembarked safely. This unattributed photograph from AV Herald claims to be the damage to the belly of the aircraft.

Initial reports are unclear as to why the airport vehicle was on the runway but it is clear that the two occupants were (thankfully!) not in the vehicle when the collision occurred, as that impact would not have been survivable.

The Brazilian accident investigation agency, CENIPA, have confirmed that they are investigating. So far, a preliminary report only confirms that the runway incursion took place.

During the takeoff roll, the flight crew decided to abort takeoff when they saw a vehicle belonging to the airport administrator on the runway. There was a collision between the aircraft and this vehicle.

The preliminary report lists no injuries among the crew and passengers and two “lightly injured third parties” which were presumably the airport vehicle staff.

The runway was reopened shortly after and an additional flight was put on for those passengers who chose to continue to Fortaleza.

This follows on the heels of what appears to be a rash of ground accidents this year.

At Seattle airport in Washington, a Japan Air Lines Boeing 787 struck the tail of a parked Delta Boeing 737.

And at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, a landing Learjet 35A veered off the runway after a gear collapse and crashed into a parked empty Gulfstream 200 business jet, killing the pilot and seriously injuring the co-pilot and two passengers.