CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Two Delta Air Lines planes clipped each other while on the taxiway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sept. 10.
A new report on the incident from the National Transportation Safety Board details how the two planes managed to clip each other, leading to one plane’s tale coming off the main body.
During the initial day of the incident, Delta released a statement saying no one was injured, but that “At approximately 10:07 a.m., the wing of an Airbus A350 taxiing out as DL295 from Atlanta to Tokyo-Haneda made contact with the tail of an Endeavor Air CRJ-900, DL5526 to LaFayette, Louisiana, on an adjacent taxiway, resulting in damage to the tail of the regional jet and the wing of the A350.”
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The same day, the Federal Aviation Administration said the wingtip of the domestic Delta flight hit the tail of the other flight, which was heading for Tokyo with 221 people on board. There were 56 people on the Louisiana flight.
In the report released by NTSB from their investigation, federal officials said the Tokyo-bound flight had initially been heading to its takeoff route and was waiting to enter the taxiway before takeoff. The plane was ordered by air traffic control to follow the CRJ plane, which was headed to LaFayette, La., while doing so.
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During its drive down the taxiway, the NTSB report said the flight crew saw an alert message on their aircraft monitor. When the crew told the air traffic control tower, they were told to head onto the taxiway but hold short to work on the problem.
The captain of the flight told NTSB that he “was looking straight ahead and to the left to avoid the left wingtip from impinging on opposite direction traffic” coming from the taxiway they were waiting to enter.
However, while the captain was keeping an eye on the left side of the plane, “the right wingtip of the A350 impacted the vertical stabilizer of the CRJ, which was holding short of runway 8R at taxiway H. Following the collision, the captain stopped the A350 and set the parking brake.”
After the collision, which ended with the tail or vertical stabilizer of the CRJ coming off of the plane, emergency responders looked over the outside of the plane, and then it was given clearance to go back to the gate.
While passengers on the flights told Channel 2′s Tom Regan the day of the incident that the experience was terrifying, no one was injured, though people were jarred and in some cases thrown out of their seats.
ABC News aviation analyst John Nance said that normally this type of clipping incident would only have a small amount of damage.
However, because “One of the planes involved was not on the right path,” the damage was instead “catastrophic for the smaller plane.”
The NTSB said their investigation of the collision is ongoing.
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