Two United Airlines planes clip wings while preparing to depart San Francisco International Airport, according to the FAA
United Airlines workers load cargo onto a plane at the San Francisco International Airport in July 2020. Two airline planes clipped wings in San Francisco on May 6. (Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource)
(CNN) — In the second such incident in less than a month, two airline planes clipped wings at a US airport, this time in San Francisco, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
United Airlines Flight 863, which was headed for Sydney, Australia, was pushing back from the gate at San Francisco International Airport early Tuesday when its right wingtip struck the left wingtip of United Flight 877, headed for Hong Kong, the FAA said in a statement to CNN.
The incident occurred about 12:30 a.m. local time “in an area where air traffic controllers do not communicate with flight crews,” the FAA added.
“No injuries occurred and passengers on both planes deplaned normally,” a United Airlines spokesperson said in a statement. “We are working with our customers to rebook them on other flights.”
The most common cause of delays or cancellations for flights is the weather, but that doesn’t just mean thunderstorms.
The FAA also is investigating an incident last month at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport involving two American Airlines regional jets that bumped wings.
“The wingtip of American Airlines Flight 5490 struck American Airlines Flight 4522 on a taxiway … around 12:45 p.m,” the FAA said in a statement.
Flight 5490 was headed to Charleston, South Carolina, while Flight 4522 was headed to JFK International Airport in New York with seven members of Congress onboard.
The April incident came as the Washington airport is coping with a series of recent incidents, including a mid-air collision in January that left 67 people dead and a military flyover in March that came dangerously close to a departing plane. The latter prompted a federal investigation focusing on an air traffic control communications breakdown.
The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
Report a Typo
