Two planes collided with one another on a taxiway at Miami’s international airport on Saturday night – a day after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an hours-long nationwide ground stop due to communication issues affecting multiple air traffic control centers.
In a statement, the Trump administration-led FAA said the wingtip of a Copa Airlines Boeing 737 struck the nose of a United Parcel Service Boeing 767 “while the airplanes were taxiing at Miami International Airport”.
Two people reportedly had minor injuries in the collision and subsequently received medical treatment.
The FAA said it was investigating the matter, which was reported at about 9pm local time.
According to the FAA, air traffic controllers had told the UPS crew to give way to the Copa flight before the collision. “The Copa flight was taxiing to the gate and the UPS flight was taxiing for departure to Bogotá, Colombia,” the FAA said.
A passenger on the Copa flight, Cesar Ferreira, spoke to CNN about how screams from those around him clued him in to the emergency.
“We were taxiing after landing at a normal speed when, all of a sudden, I heard the chatter around me getting louder – followed by a collective scream and then the impact of another aircraft hitting ours,” Ferreira said. “Inside the cabin, we felt the plane jerk abruptly sideways. At first, some passengers started freaking out, but the Copa crew reacted quickly, getting everyone to remain seated.”
Copa Airlines said in a statement that it “regrets the disruption this incident may cause our passengers”.
“The safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority, and we will cooperate with authorities as they investigate,” the airline said.
The airport said flights were directed to other taxiways, so airport operations were not affected.
“We are aware of an incident involving one of our aircraft on the ground in Miami,” UPS said in a statement. “Our crew is safe, and we are committed to working with authorities to determine what happened. The safety of our employees and the public is our highest priority.”
The weekend was marked by thousands of flight delays and cancelations in the wake of a four-hour FAA ground stop on Friday which the Trump administration said stemmed from routine but botched maintenance aiming to switch telecommunication lines from old copper wire to fiber optic cables.
Trump administration transportation secretary Sean Duffy on Saturday and Sunday blamed the need for the maintenance on a lack of congressional funding – though critics have said the White House has not spent the money it has been apportioned to upgrade the infrastructure supporting the US’s air travel system.
