JetBlue plane strikes parked plane at JFK; federal officials are investigating

A JetBlue plane is scheduled to depart JFK International Airport in New York on Wednesday morning crashed into an uninhabited plane en route to the runway, officials confirmed.

The unoccupied plane, also owned by JetBlue, was parked at the time of the collision, which the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration said occurred during a push-off — when a plane is pushed away from a parking spot, usually at a gate, before heading toward the tarmac for takeoff. According to JetBlue and the FAA, the operating plane “struck the tail” of the parked one, then returned to the gate and transferred its passengers to another plane. There were no casualties as a result of the accident.

“On Wednesday morning, JetBlue Flight 1603 from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU) in San Juan made light contact with an unmanned parked aircraft during push-off,” reports JetBlue. in the statement. The company said safety is its “first priority” and “both aircraft involved will be taken out of service for inspection” while the incident is investigated.

In a separate statement sent to CBS News, the FAA said it would conduct an investigation into Wednesday’s collision. The agency also confirmed more details about the crash, saying both JetBlue planes were the same model, an Airbus 320.

Wednesday’s collision at JFK comes just days after a close call was reported at the same airport. On Friday, a Delta plane nearly collided with an American Airlines plane when the latter plane crossed the runway at JFK, where the former craft was accelerating in preparation for takeoff. The Delta Boeing 737, which was carrying 145 passengers and 6 crew members and was en route to the Dominican Republic, managed to come to rest about 1,000 feet from the American Airlines Boeing 777, which was carrying 137 passengers and 14 crew members to the United Kingdom. CBS New York informed.

Federal authorities have also opened an investigation into Friday’s botched getaway, with the National Transportation Safety Board leading the investigation. The NTSB confirmed its involvement in the investigation Twitter.

“Any time there’s a runway incursion like this, there’s the potential for very bad things to happen,” Robert Sumwalt, former NTSB chairman, said. CBS New York. “The NTSB will want to understand what happened, why it happened. Was there a distraction in the cockpit of the American flight? Was there a misunderstanding about the controller’s clearance?”