Washington, November 15 (Yes Punjab News)
Two people were injured after a passenger aircraft and a cargo plane collided on the taxiway at Miami International Airport in the US on Saturday night, adding to a series of disruptions affecting air travel across the country.
The incident occurred around 9.15 p.m. local time when the wingtip of a Copa Airlines Boeing 737, arriving from Panama City with 166 passengers and six crew members, struck the nose of a UPS Boeing 767 cargo aircraft as both planes were moving along the airport taxiways, NDTV reported.
Copa Airlines said two passengers received medical attention from airport paramedics for what initially appeared to be minor injuries. All passengers had disembarked after the aircraft reached the terminal.
“The aircraft is at the terminal and all passengers have disembarked. Two of them received attention from airport paramedics for what, preliminarily, appear to be minor injuries,” the airline said.
It added that the remaining passengers and six crew members were in good condition and said it would cooperate with authorities investigating the collision.
Meanwhile, air travel disruptions across the US were expected to continue into Sunday after a nationwide ground stop on Friday brought widespread flight cancellations and delays.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Bryan Bedford said flight schedules were unlikely to return to normal until late Sunday as the agency worked to stabilise operations following technical problems in its air traffic control communications system.
According to aviation tracking website FlightAware, airlines had cancelled more than 6,150 flights and delayed over 7,300 others in the US by 6.45 p.m. ET on Saturday. Around 9,200 flights were cancelled and another 7,500 delayed on Friday. More than 530 flights scheduled for Sunday had also been cancelled by Saturday evening.
The disruption began on Friday when the FAA issued a nationwide ground stop, halting almost all departing flights for nearly five hours. The resulting chaos left thousands of passengers stranded and forced airlines to reposition aircraft, pilots and other crew members.
The incident prompted an emergency meeting at the White House. While authorities initially examined the possibility of a cyberattack, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later said the technical problem had been traced to the installation of at least one new router by FAA contractor L3Harris at a remote facility.
Bedford apologised to affected passengers and said the FAA was working to restore normal flight operations.
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