American Air jet clipped Frontier Jet on Miami International Airport tarmac
MIAMI - Two flights out of Miami International Airport were delayed Thursday evening after one of the planes clipped the other.
As an American Airlines jet was backing up around 8:30 p.m. it hit a Frontier Airlines jet. In a video post on Only in Dade, an airport employee can be seen running on the tarmac to stop the American plane from continuing to back up.
The Frontier plane was in the process of getting ready to board passengers when it was hit.
"Only crew members were on board the Frontier aircraft at the time and no injuries have been reported. Frontier is currently assessing damage and re-accommodating customers," Frontier said in a statement.
American Flight 929 was headed to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Frontier flight was bound for Dallas.
Among the passengers about to board the Frontier plane was Christian Galvez who was heading to Texas to visit a friend.
"We were angry for the most part and they were doing their best to diffuse us from our angry mob state. I was fine with it, to be fair, I had already accepted my fate like maybe three hours prior. They told us that people who were not residents would be able to get a hotel room on them and the flight was going to be moved to 1:45 in the afternoon," he said.
That flight on Friday was moved to 7 p.m. before being canceled.
After impact, the American jet had damage to its vertical stabilizer, and the Frontier jet had damage to its tail where the vertical stabilizer went into it, leaving a hole. Both planes will likely be out of commission for several weeks as they are repaired.
American apologized for the flight disruption.
"During pushback from the gate in Miami (MIA), the wing tip of American Airlines flight 929 with service from MIA to São Paulo (GRU) made contact with the tail of a parked aircraft. Customers deplaned normally and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team. We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this caused," said American in a statement.