SIA plane clips tail of Spirit Airlines jet at US airport; no injuries reported
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The SIA and Spirit Airlines planes were preparing to take off at Newark Liberty International Airport when they made contact on the ground.
ST PHOTO: STEPHANIE YEOW
- A Singapore Airlines jet's wing clipped a Spirit plane's tail at Newark Liberty Airport on March 3. No injuries were reported.
- Spirit's plane was grounded for inspection; SIA's jet was cleared and its flight rescheduled. The FAA is investigating.
- The incident happened where air traffic control was absent, as Spirit's plane was de-icing.
AI generated
A Singapore Airlines (SIA) jet clipped the tail of another plane with its wing at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey in the US on March 3.
The SIA and Spirit Airlines planes were preparing to take off at about 10am (11pm Singapore time) when they made contact on the ground at Terminal B, according to US media outlet CBS News.
The Spirit Airlines plane was getting de-iced – having ice, snow or frost from its surface removed – while parked during the incident. ABC 7 News reported that it was the SIA plane’s right wing that clipped the Spirit plane.
In response to queries, SIA said the wingtip of the Airbus A350-900 aircraft operating Flight SQ21 made contact with another aircraft during pushback.
SIA said there were no injuries and that the aircraft returned safely to the gate. Passengers were deplaned and provided with meals and refreshments, it added.
After an inspection by SIA’s engineers, the plane was cleared for service and the flight departed Newark at 4.09pm on March 3 after a delay of about six hours and 34 minutes, with a fresh team of pilots and cabin crew.
“We sincerely apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this has caused. The safety of our customers and crew is our top priority,” the airline said.
The Spirit Airlines aircraft, an Airbus A321neo, was taken out of service for inspection by the American low-cost carrier’s maintenance crew.
According to aviation websites, an Airbus A350-900 can carry over 300 passengers, while an Airbus A321neo typically seats about 200 passengers.
A previous report by The Straits Times said SIA’s long-range Airbus A350-900ULR is configured to carry up to 161 passengers – 67 in business class and 94 in premium economy, with no regular economy seats available.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the incident happened at a place where air traffic control is not present and not able to direct aircraft motion.
Passenger Sree Sreenivasan, 55, told ST he “did not expect something dramatic to happen in the first minute of pulling out of the gate”. He did not feel any impact though the plane came to an abrupt stop. After about 20 minutes of sitting still and wondering what had happened, he said the pilot announced “something about two planes coming in contact with each other”.
“It wasn’t clear to us that it was us that had hit the other plane,” added the artificial intelligence and social media trainer.
The FAA is investigating the incident.
