American, Frontier planes clip wings at Logan Airport in Boston
BOSTON - Two planes operated by American Airlines and Frontier Airlines clipped wings on the tarmac at Logan Airport in Boston Monday. No one was hurt from the collision that happened at about noon at a Terminal E gate with passengers on board.
A Massport spokesperson said the wingtips at the end of the wings of both planes touched. The jets are being checked for damage, and Massport said "most likely those planes will not fly."
Apparent damage to American Airlines plane
WBZ-TV's helicopter flew over the scene and captured what appeared to be a hole in the wing of the American Airlines plane.
A spokesperson for Frontier said that 200 people were onboard Flight 3601 heading to Dallas-Fort Worth at the time. There were no injuries reported from both the crew and passengers onboard, Frontier said.
American said Flight 109 had just arrived from London. The plane has been removed from service for inspection, the airline said.
There was also a firetruck and Massachusetts State Police vehicles at the scene.
All passengers onboard the Frontier flight are able to request a refund or rebook their flight with the airline. They will also receive a $100 travel credit for future flights, Frontier said.
Passengers say they felt a bump
Passengers onboard the Frontier flight said they felt the two planes hit each other, but did not know what happened.
"It was terrible. It was very scary, all of a sudden - thump," Evelyn Pipione of North Hampton said. "It sounded like something fell from below."
"You bounce back and forth and then I looked out the window it was right out my side of the window and I saw that the wing hit our wing," April O'Brien said.
Now passengers are scrambling to find another flight before Thanksgiving.
"It's horrible because my sister-in-law has stage four cancer so we're trying to get to see her," O'Brien said.
"Now we can't so it's very sad," Pipione added.
FAA investigating collision at Logan Airport
The FAA told CBS News in a statement that is investigating the collision. The agency said the American plane was a Boeing 777 that was being towed when it hit the Frontier jet, an Airbus A321.
"The incident occurred in an area that's not under air traffic control," the FAA said.
There have been other minor collisions at Logan in recent years. A pair of JetBlue planes hit each other in the de-icing area in February, with one wingtip touching another plane's tail. A United Airlines plane being towed clipped wings with another United jet in March 2023. And in March 2022, a Delta plane's winglet hit another Delta aircraft's horizontal stabilizer at the gate.
No one was hurt in any of the incidents.
Logan expects to see 1.2 million passengers during the Thanksgiving travel week, WBZ NewsRadio reported.