Two aircraft collided while taxiing on the ground at New York's LaGuardia airport, clipping a piece of wingtip off one of them, authorities say.
Southwest Flight 449, preparing to leave LaGuardia, had its winglet clipped by an arriving American Airlines aircraft as the Southwest plane taxied from its gate toward the runway for takeoff.
Upturned winglets, as tall as 8 feet on some types of planes, are intended to improve fuel efficiency by reducing drag. Although a plane could fly without them, having one intact on one wing but missing on the other could affect a plane's handling.
The almost 150 passengers on the Southwest Boeing 737 had to deplane on the tarmac, while the aircraft was removed from service for inspection and repair.
Several tweeted about the incident as soon as it happened and posted photos, including one of a ground crew member carrying off a piece of the winglet.
"Live from LaGuardia: Southwest plane I'm on had its wing clipped; impact with American plane. Unclear what happened. pic.twitter.com/UZIKdBNNMK"
- Arí Isaacman Astles (@Ari_Be_Free) December 23, 2014
The Southwest flight was going to Denver; the American Airlines plane, also a Boeing 737, had arrived from Dallas and was waiting for a gate assignment.
"@SouthwestAir @AmericanAir small collision at LGA. American plane backed into our Southwest flight - Wing fell off! pic.twitter.com/UkOgaqf1F0"
- Andrew Steiner (@DrewSteiner) December 23, 2014
No one was hurt, said a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is responsible for the airport's operations.
"There were no injuries," said spokesman Ron Marsico. "There are no impacts on operations now. The F.A.A. is on the scene."
Some of the passengers on the Southwest flight managed to take the Tuesday morning incident in stride.
"It was literally a fender bender of the plane variety," said Christians Peppard, a professor of environmental ethics at Fordham University. "Everyone's fine. And it's so absurd. But we all said we'd rather lose part of the wing on the ground than in the air."
Another passenger issued a light-hearted tweet.
"Southwest just wanted to say "Hi" to American! By clipping wings. Sigh #holidaytravel #LaGuardia #AmericanAirlines pic.twitter.com/MOqOV2qCuT
- wherethekaoroam (@wherethekaoroam) December 23, 2014
LaGuardia is an older airport with some tight spaces and obstacles that must be navigated around.
