US Airways Plane Strikes Empty Jet at TF Green Airport
A US Airways aircraft with 36 people on board clipped an empty plane while on the ground at Rhode Island’s TF Green Airport. Both aircraft were slight damaged, but nobody was injured during the incident, according to officials on Tuesday.
The US Airways Embraer 175 was being operated by Republid Airways and was departing for Philadelphia. When it hit a US Airways Airbus A321, which was empty, the Embraer was being pushed away from a gate by an airline employee. The Airbus jet was bound for Charlotte, NC, according to Patti Goldstein, an airport spokeswoman, who also said that the employee simply pushed the aircraft too close to the other plane, which was parked at the next gate.
Goldstein also noted that neither of the aircraft were powered at the time, and Morgan Durrant, a US Airways spokesman, suggested that the incident happened at a very low speed. A Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman, Arlene Salac, says that the planes were in the gate area - not on the runway - and the pilot wasn’t talking to air control during the accident.
Durrant also noted that the Embraer plane’s wing was damaged, while the tail of the Airbus was damaged as well. Salac said that the damage to the tail was to an exhaust unit, while Goldstein said there was only minor damage.
In the end, the passengers were taken off the planes and put on other flights. Durrant said that the National Transportation Safety Board and the carrier are conducting investigations. Salac noted that the Federal Aviation Administration will decide if the investigations need to continue.
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