Sept. 10 (UPI) — Two Delta Air Lines jets with passengers collided on the tarmac Tuesday at Atlanta’s main airport. No one was injured but one jet’s wing was damaged and another plane’s tail section was destroyed.
The taxiway incident affected two Delta Air Lines aircraft, one carrying 221 passengers and another carrying 56 passengers.
The wingtip of a Delta Airbus A350 carrying 221 passengers on Delta Flight 295 and destined for Tokyo contacted the tail of a smaller Bombardier CRJ-900 regional aircraft carrying 56 passengers on Flight 5526 and destined for Lafayette, La., at 10:07 a.m. at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration reported.
The smaller CRJ-900 was on a taxiway that is adjacent to the one used by the Airbus A350 when the accident occurred.
Passengers from both aircraft were transferred to other flights after departing the damaged planes.
“There is minimal impact to airport operations,” a spokesperson for the Atlanta airport said in a statement.
The CRJ-900’s tail was bent at a 90-degree angle, which forced its passengers to depart the plane on the taxiway to board a bus that ferried them to an airport terminal.
That plane is operated by Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air, which is a regional airline.
The Airbus A350’s pilots taxied away from the accident scene and safely unloaded their passengers at an airport concourse.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident, and Delta Air Lines said it is cooperating with the investigation.
One passenger on the regional aircraft was WFTS in Tampa meteorologist Jason Adams, who is traveling to Louisiana to help report on Tropical Storm Francine.
“Very jarring, metal scraping sounds then loud bangs,”Adams said in a post on X and reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
“We’re fine,” he added. “No fire or smoke.”
A tire explosion killed two and injured one at the Delta Technical Operations center at the Atlanta airport on Aug. 27.