Two Delta Airlines airplanes collided at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on Tuesday morning while being taxied down the tarmac. According to reports, one of the planes’ tails was nearly ripped off when a Delta Airbus A350’s wing tip “came into contact” with a Delta CRJ 900 regional jet’s tail. Photos and videos were captured of the incident, showing the extensive damage caused by the collision.
In the aftermath of the two planes colliding, the Federal Aviation Administration released a statement detailing the incident. “While Delta Air Lines Flight 295 was taxiing for departure at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, its wingtip struck the tail of Endeavor Air Flight 5526. The Delta Airbus A350 was headed to Tokyo. The Endeavor Bombardier CRJ900 was headed to Lafayette, Louisiana,” the FAA said.
Local news outlet Atlanta News First reported on eyewitness testimonies from those on board the planes when the incident occurred. Stacy Thibodeaux, who was on the Endeavor Bombardier CRJ900 headed to Layfette, recalled the initial confusion when their plane was hit. “It shook us, we didn’t know what was going on,” he recounted, “I actually thought the plane went off the runaway that wasn’t the case a much larger plane hit us and took the whole tail off of our plane.”
Furthermore, Steven Shelton, a passenger on the Delta Airbus A350 aircraft set to depart for Toyko, spoke about the accident from his perspective. “It sounded like when a car hits a pothole basically, where it hit on the wing was literally the tip of the wing you didn’t really hear metal on metal. You kind of heard a bang and everything vibrated,” he said.
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport also released a statement on the Tuesday incident that occurred on its tarmac. “At 10:07AM, two aircraft made contact at the intersection of taxiways E and H on the north airfield. No injuries are reported. Passengers from one aircraft are being bussed to concourse B; the other aircraft taxied on its own power to its gate. There is minimal impact to ops,” the airport wrote.
The X account FL360aero, which reports on news in the aviation industry wrote, “Two Delta Airlines aircraft were involved in a collision on the taxiway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. A Delta airlines Airbus A350-941 aircraft (N503DN) clips vertical stabilizer off the Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-900LR plane (N302PQ), operating flight DL5526. As per FAA officials, one of the aircraft’s wing struck the tail of another, causing it to come off.”
Social media users in the comments section speculated as to who should be blamed for the costly collision. “Sounds to me like a controller is to blame and/or an inattentive aircrew, or an aircrew that failed to follow instructions. Either way, the aircrew of the A350 could and should have avoided the collision,” one person wrote.
Another person claimed, “The CRJ stopped and sat well short of the Hold Short line leaving the tail dangling out into the taxi way. The A350 should have noticed that. I question where air traffic was during all of this. May end up all of them contributed to the incident.”
Watch the aftermath of the collision below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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