BA 747 wing slices into building at South African airport

The wing of a departing British Airways 747-400 jumbo sliced into a brick building at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport as it taxied toward a runway late Sunday night.

South African airport officials tell The Associated Press that four airport workers received minor injuries when they were hit with falling debris. Reuters says no one on the plane was injured.

An image from the scene shows that the wing of the 747 appears to be wedged far into the low-slung brick building.

As for the cause of the incident, officials from South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority say the 747 had gone down a taxiway that was too narrow to accommodate the aircraft, according to the BBC.

The control tower "told them to take one taxi-way and they took another one. They took a wrong one," aviation authority spokeswoman Phindiwe Gwebu says to the BBC.

"Investigators still need to talk to the pilot," Gwebu adds to The Wall Street Journal. She says the plane also suffered a fuel look following the collision.

BA also confirmed that aircraft was damaged, adding that the jumbo jet is more than 23 years old.

There were 182 passengers on board the flight, which was to fly to London, according to the Journal. Including crew, the 747 had just over 200 people on board, Bloomberg News reports.

BA says it is conducting a full investigation and that it is assisting the South African Civil Aviation Authority with its handling of the situation, according to The Telegraph of London.

"We are waiting the result of the local aviation authority before commenting on the cause of the incident," BA spokesman Philip Allport says to the Journal.

The incident appears to be a serious one, says at least one industry observer.

"This wasn't just a case of the wing grazing the building, this was a huge incursion," aviation consultant Robert Mann says to Bloomberg. He notes the London-Johannesburg flight comes on a "senior route" which would most likely staffed by experienced cockpit crews.

Harriet Tolputt, the head of media for Oxfam and a passenger on the flight, tweeted about what she saw after the jet collided with the building.

"BA plane crashes into building at J Burg airport. No one injured only the pilot's pride," Tolputt said in her tweet.

The 747 has been moved to a location of the airport where it is not affecting the operation of other aircraft.