NEW YORK — Two Delta Air Lines regional jets collided while on the taxiway at LaGuardia Airport in New York, injuring at least one person in what the airline described as a “low-speed collision.”
The wing of an aircraft carrying 32 people getting ready to take off Wednesday night to Roanoke, Virginia, hit the fuselage of an aircraft arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina, with 61 people aboard, according to a statement from Delta.
A flight attendant had non-life threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital, according a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. There were no reports of passengers injured, the airline said.
“Their right wing clipped our nose and the cockpit we have damage to our windscreen and … some of our screens in here,” a pilot said, according to air traffic control audio.
The plane that had landed “stopped, jerked, and jumped to the right,” passenger William Lusk, told ABC. ”Everyone went dead silent. And as everyone went dead silent, the pilot calmly came on and said, ‘Hey, we’ve been in a crash, everyone remain calm.'”
The rest of the airport’s operations were not expected to be impacted, according to Delta.
“Delta will work with all relevant authorities to review what occurred as safety of our customers and people comes before all else,” the statement from Delta said. “We apologize to our customers for the experience.”
The Delta Connection aircraft involved in the collision are operated by Endeavor Air.