Washington: Two people were injured after two planes collided on the tarmac at Miami International Airport in the US on Saturday, a day after a nationwide ground stop caused widespread chaos, resulting in hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the country.
The incident took place when the wingtip of a Copa Airlines Boeing 737, which was carrying 166 passengers and six crew members from Panama City, hit the nose of a cargo plane, a UPS Boeing 767, while the two planes were moving along the airport taxiways around 9.15 p.m. (local time) on Saturday, NDTV reported.
Copa Airlines said two people were injured in the collision of two planes. In a statement, it said, “The aircraft is at the terminal and all passengers have disembarked. Two of them received attention from airport paramedics for what, preliminarily, appear to be minor injuries.”
The Panama-based airline said that the other passengers and six crew members are in “good condition.” The airline said, “We regret the inconvenience and concern this situation may have caused. We reiterate that the safety of passengers and crews is our priority. We will cooperate with the authorities in this investigation.”
Air travel disruptions across the US are expected to persist well into Sunday, as thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed as airlines struggle to restore normal operations following a nationwide shutdown caused by problems in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) air traffic control communications system.
FAA chief Bryan Bedford said on Saturday (local time) that flight schedules were unlikely to return to normal until late Sunday, even as the agency continued working to stabilise operations and resolve the technical problems responsible for the widespread disruption.
According to aviation tracking website FlightAware, airlines had cancelled more than 6,150 flights and delayed over 7,300 others in the US by 6.45 p.m. ET (2345 GMT) on Saturday.
The disruption followed an even more severe day on Friday, when approximately 9,200 flights were cancelled and another 7,500 faced delays. Meanwhile, more than 530 flights scheduled for Sunday had also been cancelled by Saturday evening.
Bedford apologised to passengers affected by the widespread disruption, assuring them that the country’s aviation system remained stable. He also said the FAA was working to restore normal operations and expected flight services to largely recover by late Sunday.
The continuing disruption has left thousands of passengers stranded at airports across the country, while airlines are facing the additional challenge of repositioning aircraft, pilots and other crew members to resume their regular flight schedules.
The crisis began on Friday after the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop, bringing almost all departing flights across the country to a halt for nearly five hours.
The unprecedented disruption also prompted an emergency meeting at the White House, where officials gathered in the Situation Room to assess the situation and examine its possible causes.
Initially, authorities considered whether a cyberattack could have triggered the breakdown in the aviation system.
However, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later said that the technical problem had been traced to the installation of at least one new router by FAA contractor L3Harris at a remote facility.
–IANS
