A Delta Air Lines plane clipped an Air Canada jet on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday morning, prompting a federal investigation into the ground collision.
Delta Air Lines Flight 7 was preparing to depart for Tokyo Haneda Airport at around 10.30am when its left wingtip struck the horizontal stabilizer of Air Canada Flight 875 while taxiing.
Officials from the Federal Aviation Administration said the Air Canada flight was being towed when it stopped short of its assigned gate.
There were 275 customers and 15 crew members on board the Delta aircraft at the time of the incident, according to a Delta spokesperson. No injuries were reported among passengers or crew on either plane.
A Delta spokesperson told the Daily Mail that the company's aircraft "made contact" with the Canadian airplane.
"Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, and we apologize to our customers for the experience and delay in their travels," the Delta spokesperson added.
The airline has agreed to cooperate fully with any investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Details of the tarmac collision
The flight was bound for Tokyo Haneda Airport, a major international aviation hub serving the Greater Tokyo area in Japan, local news outlet KTLA 5 reported.
KTLA 5 aerial photojournalist Rich Prickett described the impact between the two commercial aircraft as "small."
"It would appear that the Delta plane was on the taxiway and the Air Canada plane was here at one of the gates, at least partially," Prickett said. "It looks like the winglet of the Delta plane went into the horizontal stabilizer of the Air Canada plane."
In commercial aircraft design, a horizontal stabilizer is a small wing structure mounted at the tail section of an airplane to maintain longitudinal balance. A winglet is a vertical extension located at the tip of a wing designed to improve aerodynamic efficiency.
A spokesperson for Los Angeles International Airport confirmed that airport operations returned to normal following the incident. LAX is one of the busiest airports in the United States, operating multiple parallel runways and a complex grid of taxiways connecting passenger terminals.
Federal safety investigations
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed it is investigating what went wrong during the ground movement. The FAA is the United States government agency responsible for regulating civil aviation and managing air traffic control systems.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board told the Daily Mail that federal investigators are currently gathering preliminary information before determining whether to launch a formal probe.
"We need additional information to determine if the damage is substantial or not before a decision is made if we will investigate," the NTSB spokesperson said. The NTSB is an independent federal agency tasked with investigating civil transportation accidents across the United States.
The Daily Mail reached out for further comment to Delta Air Lines, Air Canada, the FAA, the NTSB and Los Angeles International Airport.
Previous Air Canada ground incident
The incident at LAX comes after another runway collision involving Air Canada earlier this year. In March, an Air Canada aircraft carrying 72 passengers and four crew members crashed into a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
That crash at the Queens airport resulted in the deaths of two pilots and left six other people seriously injured.
Air Canada is Canada's flag carrier and largest airline, headquartered in Montreal, while Delta Air Lines is a major American carrier based in Atlanta, Georgia. Federal investigators will assess structural damage to both aircraft before concluding whether a full NTSB investigation will proceed.
