A United Airlines Boeing 737 Photo: Daniel Slim / AFP (Getty Images)
The skies have been anything but kind in recent years. Aside from passengers still wreaking havoc in airplane cabins and flight schedule systems collapsing, near misses and runway accidents are becoming more common. The latest incident happened on the tarmac at Boston Logan International Airport yesterday morning and involved two United Airlines planes.
Two United Airlines Boeing 737s were scheduled to depart Boston at about the same time. United Flight 515 flew to Newark and Flight 267 to Denver. CNN reported that Flight 515 was being pushed back from the gate at 8:30 a.m. until the Boeing’s right wing collided with the tail of Flight 267. The damaged aircraft was unable to continue and returned to its gates. Passengers on both flights have been rebooked on afternoon departures.
No one was injured in the minor collision, but the passengers of both planes certainly felt the contact. Nicholas Leone, a passenger on Flight 515, told CNN: “I felt a sudden jolt and looked to my right to see that the plane had crashed into the stationary plane. After seeing the fire engines and police cars, people were a little unsettled. Luckily everyone was able to disembark quickly.” This was the second time in the past week that a United Airlines aircraft has been involved in an incident at Logan Airport.
Last week on Monday, JetBlue Flight 206 was preparing to land at Logan Airport when a private Learjet 60 took off without permission at an intersecting runway. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the JetBlue Embraer 190 swerved to avoid a collision when the private jet crossed its path. The two aircraft came within 565 feet of each other.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating both United Airlines’ tarmac contact and JetBlue’s near miss with a Learjet. These investigations come in addition to four other runway near misses in the United States this year.