Singapore Airlines flight 21, the 19 hour 10 minute non-stop from Newark to Singapore, struck the tail of a Spirit Airlines plane on Tuesday morning. Video from inside the Singapore Airbus A350-900 shows the damage to Spirit’s tail. The FAA describes the planes as having “clipped each other while at a gate.”
The flight was scheduled to depart at 9:35 a.m. but was delayed six and a half hours as required checks were performed on aircraft 9V-SGA.
This happened within the hour on @SingaporeAir flight SQ21, EWR to SIN, world’s longest flight at 19 hours, 10 min.
During the first minute as we pulled out, our plan’s wingtip hit a @SpiritAirlines tail. Don’t know whose fault it is, but you can see the damage in this video.… pic.twitter.com/t3rN30mkoh
— Sree Sreenivasan (sreenet.substack.com) (@sree) March 3, 2026
For low speed wingtip contact on the ground, Singapore would have needed to inspect the structure, clear it with either no damage or within allowable limits, repair it if needed, and issue a maintenance release. This isn’t a simple walkaround. If composites are involved at the wingtip, that’s an even more detailed inspection.
Since the plane took off – as one of the two longest flights in the world (Singapore’s New York JFK flight is about 3 miles longer), there was either no damage – Spirit’s tail took it all – or there was minor cosmetic damage like paint or a replaceable fairing.
Oh no! That looked expensive. And the weather was absolute piss today here. Yikes.
SQ needs to get their act together at EWR.
Very interesting, how could a flight crew incur a 6 hour delay and THEN go fly the longest flight in the world, that does not sound legal. Did they recrew the flight ? Did they have crew come fly that were already laying over?
Apparently, newer versions of the Airbus A350-900 have replaceable modular winglets, starting with Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN) 216. The newer design is more efficient, taller, with a squarer design for the aircraft. Not sure what the MSN is for Singapore Airlines 9V-SGA, but that may explain the fairly quick turnaround time.
This is like a Mercedes clipping an Altima
Was the Spirit flight delayed by hours? If so, I see a very entertaining Youtube video coming into my feed.
It was over an argument with Singapore demanding its expiring miles for life
SQ21 flies with 4 Pilots, and 13 cabin crew. I’m sure a 6 hour delay isn’t optimal, but not illegal..
@Dang
4 pilots crew in the USA has a 19 hour FDP limit, their FDP would of been somewhere close to 26 hours , even with an FRMS in the USA no airline is allowed to be on duty anywhere close to 26 hours so something is weird.