A passenger in Atlanta reports hearing “loud bangs followed by extremely jarring, metal scraping sounds.”
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, during Tuesday morning on the tarmac of an Atlanta airport, a Delta Airbus A350 and an Endeavor Bombardier CRJ900 plane clipped one other.
“While Delta Air Lines Flight 295 was taxiing for departure from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, its wingtip struck the tail of Endeavor Air Flight 5526,” the FAA said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The Delta Airbus A350 was bound for Tokyo. It further added that the Endeavor Bombardier CRJ900 was still on its course 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.”
Pictures of one of the planes, with extensive damage to its tail, are going around on social media; it seems the vertical stabilizer was cut off.
“Well, that was scary. It feels like as we taxi off for our departure from Atlanta to Louisiana, another jet clipped the back of our aircraft,” an X post from WFTS Meteorologist Jason Adams reads. “A loud grinding sound of metal, followed by deafening booms. We’re ok. Not a hint of smoke or fire.”
In a statement from Delta, the Airbus A350 wing, 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. The regional jet’s tail and the A350 wing were both damaged in the process.
The carrier added, until now, no injuries are reported. “DL295 had 221 consumers, whereas DL5526 had 56 customers. No more operational changes are anticipated at this time.”.
Later, Delta put out a second statement from the airline in which it said it has “cooperated with every customer. to arrange accommodations on other aircraft that are scheduled to depart Tuesday afternoon.” We “regret the experience our customers experienced.”