Two planes clipped wings at Newark Airport over the weekend, delaying 242 passengers.
A Southwest Airlines flight bound for Fort Lauderdale began to taxi in the designated deicing area at Newark Liberty International when its left winglet grazed another parked aircraft that was preparing to operate Southwest Flight 3133 to Nashville.
The airline told Travel Weekly both aircraft were brought back to gates where employees assisted customers whose travel plans were interrupted.
A passenger on board the flight to Fort Lauderdale said in a Tweet that something fell off the side of the aircraft but the extent of the damage has not been confirmed.
This was what fell off our plane when our plane taxing to the runway hit the tail of the other Southwest plane. pic.twitter.com/SO12lAXq0A
— Alex Diefenbach (@AlexDief) March 2, 2019
“No injuries were reported after two aircraft in a designated deicing area at Newark Liberty International briefly made contact Saturday morning,” the airline said in a statement.
“There is no higher priority for us than safety and we thank our customers for their patience as we worked to get them to their destinations as quickly as possible.”
The 140 customers and crew of five booked on flight number 6 to Fort Lauderdale continued their journey on a new aircraft, and flight number 3133 was cancelled with airline staff accommodating the 102 customers on other flights from both Newark and LaGuardia.
The aircraft were both taken out of service for a maintenance review.
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