United flight 898 from Austin to Houston was taxiing out from gate 19, and American’s flight AA2675 from New York JFK was on its way into gate 21, when the two aircraft “collided Wednesday night” around 8:20 p.m.
Credit: KXAN
The airlines are pointing fingers at each other over the incident.
- “American Airlines said the wingtip of the United plane hit American Flight 2675… [and that] their plane was stationary when the collision happened.”
- “United, however, says it was the other plane that came into contact with their plane.”
The FAA and a report from a United passenger appear to side with American in the dispute,
The agency did say the two Boeing 737 planes came into contact in the ramp area, with preliminary information showing the wingtip of United Flight 898 came into contact with the tail section of the American flight.
A passenger of the United flight told KXAN the pilot came over the intercom after the collision and acknowledged it was his fault.
The American flight had been about 20 minutes early but since passengers were kept on the planes for some time after the incident the actual arrival was 35 minutes late. The United flight was cancelled.
United Passengers Waiting at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport After Deplaning, credit: Rosa Arce
This is my home airport and I was disappointed several weeks ago when American moved its gates down towards the far end of the terminal. For instance, the prized gate 13 directly below American’s Admirals Club (you could look out the window and see if your flight was boarding) is now used by Virgin America. Had American not made this switch their plane wouldn’t have collided. Any cost savings they may have generated by the move has likely now turned into a net cost.
Considering the recent press regarding these airlines, this is gold.
Did either airline charge extra for this “taxiing enhancement experience”?
Update to Pilots Manual: Never admit to being at fault – especially over the intercom into the passenger cabin.
@gary – amusing that you think an insurable action last night translates at all into thinking about whether or not they should change gates…that sounds like a statement I’d get out of my 12 year old.
@ed – your assertion is the problem we see in society today; never admit guilt, even when you’re guilty. I’ll agree with you that it’s probably not best to make that announcement, there’s no need for it, but kudos to the pilot for owning up to his mistake.
Gary, my understanding is that the city of Austin forced AA to vacate gate 13 for one down near the UA gates.
I’m surprised that UA was using Gate 19. They’re usually all on the even side though my last flight from AUS boarded at Gate 25 which has normally been the Alaska gate. Gate 20, for some reason, wasn’t being used at the time (last Friday).
Well, the news are funny, but the comments are funnier…. thanks…
I was being cheeky.
Great to see a true 737 silverbird!
No texting while taxiing. .. it can wait.
Two ?’s:
Would the copilot have been watching to notice something wrong?
Were both planes suppose to be or allowed to be moving, per ATC tower, at the same time?
Although these types of incidents are rare, since there is a lot of activity to/from/around the gate areas, we can expect more of these events.
So….. until you can design the perfect systems for self driving planes and ground vehicles, etc, we (passengers) don’t want ANY hurried gate push backs, boarding drama (who brought this cake, we need that seat, I won’t give you my name, your 2 year old has to sit in your lap, I will call the police, I am allergic to dogs…well, I am allergic to turkeys…we I am allergic to idiots, etc, hold on forgot SWA… there is no assigned seating, therefore your minor child has to sit whereever because you were last to board, didn’t pay to preboard, arrived too late to board first, whatever, we don’t care, not our fault, nor our problem, we have free luggage…—…your problem. Until the dreaded announcement on the runway… “flight attendants, prepare to evac”… and the next time the parent sitting in a completely random seat sees their child(ren), also in a random seat(s) is on the tarmac ( well, technically tarmac is a trademark like kleenex..I digress,), call it a runway with planes and firetrucks etc, foaming down the plane, so much foam that people get covered up by it, and the simple no assigned seats policy, family members (ie children) once scattered about the cabin, now scattered about the runway (another responsible adult or crew will watch them, right) during a completely unpredictable evac (wow, where did these inflatable slides come from? Did somebody plan for people to evac? I know the airline didn’t, so it must have been the airplane maker?), could lead to ‘just’ one ‘statistic’, aka fatality or injury. Very manageable. .. “Everyone evacuated safely. Coincidentally a firetruck had a seperate unrelated incident involving a person on the runway.” ( Sincerest condolences to the parents, siblings, family, co-passengers, and friends of the one victim on the ANA crash at SFO only a few short years ago. Airlines over here do not understand the ramifications of their current practices and policies. Hopefully your loss will not go completely unnoticed.)
This started as a joke about texting while taxiing, but in all seriousness, if airlines, pilots, and flight attendants do not minimize distracting or time consuming events during boarding so that they are resolved before people get on the plane, and until FA and pilots can stop worrying about D0 statistics, the probability of a potential billion dollar catastrophe (worst case scenario, two planes at their gates, taxiing, or on the runway, two distracted pilots, two distracted flight attendants on each plane, obviously fully occupied, you can throw in some comfort pets, but if one of them is Lassie, he may prevent any mishaps, and still have time for commercials) will eventually hit 1.
Some might say that for UAL, it hit 1 because their stock took a multi billion dollar hit. NOT EVEN COMPARABLE to a distracted crew or airline worried more about D0 or passenger $ than drama free boardings, takeoffs and landings.
This reminds me, I need to cancel my wife’s Luv2Fly credit card before the next annual fee is due. They got their last $40 out of us. And it was miserable telling other passengers that the three seats we didn’t pay the $60 priority boarding fee on were ‘taken’. By God, it was our vacation, and our motto is “The family that sits together, evacuates together”. Go JetBlue. But I do hate paying their luggage fees.
Re-reading the article, I see that all three statements are in alignment… FAA,UAL , and AA.
UAL didnt deny or contradict AA’s statement and the UAL passenger corroborates AA and FAA press release/statements.
But UAL gets bonus points for successfully spinning readers perception of the facts. And AA lost points because, we learned, their prime lounge location was lost to a non legacy airline.
Even worse, they were the innocent bystander. They could be called Republican Airlines.
So why keep the passengers on the plane for an additional 55 minute? 20 minutes early but kept passengers on plane and it was declared 35 minutes late. Common DUMB and DUMBER.
Were they trying to figure out which passenger to blame for not being in the seat and blocking their view something, so they could beat them up and drag em off the plane??
Planes are damaged take photo’s and get the PAX off the stupid planes so they can on about their business. The PAX have better things to do than to sit around while idiots try to figure out who to blame.. RETARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Planes wing tip hits other planes tail, but says the plane with damaged tail was at fault??? Was plane with damage tail in Reverse of something LOL…..