Two Delta Air Lines aircraft were involved in a ground collision at Atlanta Airport Tuesday morning at around 10am when the wide body aircraft knocked the tail off the smaller one.
The incident took shape when both the planes were taxiing for takeoff, and the wing of the six-year-old Airbus A350-941 collided with the tail of the 2014 built Delta Connection CRJ-900LR regional jet.
While Delta Connection CRJ-900LR had 56 passengers aboard flight 5526, the Delta Air Lines Airbus A350 was carrying 221 passengers onboard, and was taxiing for departure as flight DL295 to Tokyo Haneda. No Injuries reported from the collision event.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it is investigating why two Delta planes collided as they prepared to take off at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.
The FAA said in a statement that at around 10:10 a.m. (local time), an Airbus A350 heading to Tokyo collided with an Endeavour Air CRJ-900 jet departing for Lafayette, Louisiana.
According to the FAA's account of events, the plane preparing to take off for Tokyo hit the tail of the Endeavour Air CRJ-900 with the tip of a wing.
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 will investigate the incident, which occurred at the intersection of two taxiways around 10:10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Please contact the airlines for additional information.
The CRJ-900 regional jet is operated by Endeavor Air, which is owned by Delta Air Lines and operates the carrier’s Delta Connection brand of regional flights.
Delta Airlines also released a statement saying that no passengers or crew members were reported injured and that the airline's operations were continuing as normal at the Atlanta airport.
Delta, for its part, reported that passengers on both aircraft were transferred back to the terminal and reassigned to other flights to reach their destinations.
Delta’s statement indicated the airline “is cooperating” with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) “and other authorities on this incident.”
Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport also released a statement, saying:
"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 National Transportation Safety Board said it will open its own investigation into the incident. And the Atlanta airport has already released a statement that operations at the site continued with "minimal impact" following the events.
Delta airlines was in news owing to a fatal accident that killed two of its maintenance staffs recently. In late August, two workers died and one was seriously injured after the tire on a Delta Boeing 757 exploded in an airline aircraft maintenance hangar inside that airport.
Definitely, there have been a series of aviation safety breaches or one can quote the exapmle of Swiss Cheese model in the latest safety breach, to result this kind of avoidable ground incident, and thankfully this was a non-fatal event.
In the past, we have witnessed accidents those produced terrifying results like the Haneda Airport collision accident, where five crew lost life on board a Japanese coastguard aircraft, that collided with JAL A350-900 plane (JA13XJ) on Runway 34R at Tokyo airport.
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