Two planes collided Saturday night on the tarmac at Miami International Airport, just a day after a nationwide flight grounding caused widespread cancellations and travel chaos.
“The wingtip of a Copa Airlines Boeing 737 struck the nose of a UPS Boeing 767 while the airplanes were taxiing,” the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Two people were injured in the collision, which happened around 9:15 p.m., Greg Chin, the airport’s communications director, told CNN.
Air traffic controllers had told the UPS crew to give way to the Copa flight, the FAA, said. The agency is investigating the collision.
UPS said it is “committed to working with authorities to determine what happened” and noted its crew was safe. CNN has reached out to Copa Airlines for comment.
The incident comes after some passengers spent the night sleeping on the airport’s terminal floors waiting for their flights to be rebooked as flight operations struggled to return to normal following the FAA ground stop Friday.
“Somebody hit us,” the pilot of the Copa Airlines flight said in air traffic control audio, as the controller asked the crew of the UPS plane if they had made contact.
“Yeah, we went too far, and then he, he clipped us with the wing,” the UPS pilot replied in the audio.
The air traffic controller instructed the Copa Airlines crew to hold their position and assured them that fire trucks were on the way.
“It seems that we are missing the left wingtip,” the pilot replied.
The Copa Airlines flight had just landed in Miami from Panama City, Panama, and an UPS flight was gearing up to takeoff for Bogotá, Colombia, around the time of the incident.
The injuries to the two people were minor and both were treated at the scene by fire and rescue teams, Chin said.
