A JetBlue flight bound for Puerto Rico bumped into an empty plane Wednesday morning before taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport, prompting an evacuation of passengers and putting both planes out of service.
The incident came days after two planes nearly collided at JFK during takeoff, triggering multiple federal investigations.
The plane, an Airbus A320, bumped into the tail of another AirBus A320 operated by JetBlue while being pushed away from the airport gate around 7 a.m., NBC New York reported. The second plane was unoccupied.
No injuries were reported, and the plane returned to the gate.
“Safety is JetBlue’s first priority, and both aircraft involved will be taken out of service for inspection and the incident will be investigated,” a company spokesperson told the Daily Mail in a statement.
The plane had been set to fly to Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico as JetBlue Flight 1603.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that it is investigating the incident.
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It comes just five days after a Delta Boeing 737 and an American Airlines Boeing 777 nearly struck each other on a JFK runway as they prepared for takeoff. The planes were carrying a total of 282 passengers, the New York Times reported.
That incident is being investigated by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Flight radar data posted on Twitter shows the Delta plane revving up for takeoff, barreling toward the American Airlines plane as it crosses the same runway. Radio chatter shows that an air traffic controller swore before frantically ordering the Delta plane to cancel its takeoff.
The FAA said the collision was narrowly avoided with the help of Model X, a system of radar and motion sensors that detects the movement of aircraft outside airports, the Times reported.
The headline of this article originally said the JetBlue incident occurred on the runway, not near the gate. The article has been corrected. American Military News regrets this error.
