A passenger said it 'felt like a brief earthquake' when a United plane's wing clipped a Delta plane's tail
Courtesy of United Airlines
- A United plane's wing struck a stationary Delta plane at Boston Logan International Airport on Friday.
- A video filmed by a passenger shows the United plane clipped the Delta plane's tail while taxiing.
- A passenger on the Delta plane told CNN it "felt like a brief earthquake."
A United Airlines plane clipped a stationary Delta Air Lines plane at Boston Logan International Airport on Friday.
A video from a passenger shared by the Twitter account Breaking Aviation News & Videos shows the wing of the slow-moving United plane clipping the tail of the Delta plane parked on the tarmac.
The Federal Aviation Administration told CNN that the incident occurred at around 7:20 p.m. when the United plane was taxiing to a holding pad.
Alex Wilson, a passenger on the Delta plane, told the broadcaster that it "felt like a brief earthquake" when the plane was clipped He said that emergency trucks arrived on site before the plane was towed back to its original gate. Passengers were given pizza while they waited for a replacement flight, he posted on Twitter.
In March, the FAA published an "aviation safety call to action" which asked airlines to be more vigilant and review things like checklist procedures and runway safety information after there were six "serious runway incursions" in less than three months.
The FAA said that, although there hadn't been an increase in the number of incidents, "the potential severity of these events is concerning."
Though there were passengers on board both planes involved in Friday's incident, no injuries were reported, per ABC News.
The United plane, a Boeing 737, was set to fly from Boston to Newark, while the Delta plane, an Airbus 321, was heading to Detroit. A United spokesperson told Bloomberg that the plane's 128 passengers got off the aircraft and were rebooked onto other flights.
A Delta spokesperson told the publication that the airline "worked to get customers to their final destination as quickly as possible."
Wilson, the passenger who posted the footage of the incident, tweeted that passengers were given pizza while waiting for a replacement flight, which he said was operated the same pilots and flight attendants.
The FAA told Bloomberg that it was investigating the incident.
The FAA, Delta, and United did not respond to Insider's requests for comment, made outside of regular working hours.