Two Qantas Airways planes hit each other at Los Angeles airport while being towed. The wing tips of each jumbo jetliner made contact during the incident.
The wing tip of a Qantas Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger plane, brushed the edge of a Boeing 747-400, Boeing's biggest plane, while both planes were being towed out of their hangars. No passengers were on board either plane when the incident occurred about 9 p.m. Qantas, the Sydney-based airline, said both planes were assessed by engineers, Bloomberg News reports.
Qantas is already dealing with setbacks. The airline recently decided to cut 5,000 jobs and reduce its fleet to save costs. It is retiring some of its 747s and is deferring delivery of eight A380s.
The Boeing 747-400 has a wingspan of 211 feet and the A380 has a wingspan on 262 feet. However, collisions such as this aren't too common and rarely lead to injury. The biggest incident of this kind occurred when a British Airways jumbo jet carrying 202 passengers and crew sliced into office buildings at the main airport in Johannesburg after it went down the wrong taxiway. Four people were injured on the ground. 2011, in another incident, an Air France A380 jumbo jet hit a Delta Air Lines commuter jet while taxiing at New York's JFK airport, causing the smaller plane, which was carrying passengers, to spin 90 degrees.
Airbus said it is aware of the current incident and is supporting Qantas by assessing the damage. It is not clear what Boeing is doing.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
