Two Delta planes collide on the runway at Atlanta airport

Two Delta Air Lines planes collided Tuesday morning on the runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia. Delta Air Lines Flight 295, which was headed to Tokyo, was taxiing for takeoff when its wingtip struck the tail of Endeavor Air Flight 5526, which was headed to Louisiana, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the airline. There were no injuries among passengers on either aircraft, but the impact ripped off the tail of the Endeavor Air plane, which is also a Delta subsidiary.

Delta said there were 221 passengers on the flight to Tokyo, and 56 on the flight to Louisiana. Images and videos shared on social media showed passengers disembarking from the crashed plane after the crash. The airline said in a statement that those affected would be accommodated on “alternative flights.” “The impact on airport operations is minimal,” a spokesman for the airport, the world’s busiest, said in a statement.

Delta confirmed it is “cooperating” with an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and other government agencies. The FAA said it will also investigate the collision.

The incident adds to a growing list of mishaps and near misses at several airports across the country. Last April, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, a JetBlue plane preparing for takeoff nearly collided with a Southwest Airlines flight that air traffic control had cleared to cross the runway. Moments before the collision, someone could be heard on the air traffic control radio yelling for both planes to stop, according to the website. LiveATCwhich provides live air traffic control broadcasts from control towers and radar installations around the world.

A month later, at the same airport in the capital, there was a near-miss when an American Airlines flight was cleared to take off while another plane had already been instructed to land on a side runway.

And in July, two planes nearly collided in the air over Syracuse, New York. The two planes involved, one from Delta and one from American Airlines, were carrying 159 people between them. The FAA is also investigating this incident. It appears to have been caused by an air traffic control error, as one of the planes had permission to land on the same runway from which the other plane was taking off at the same time. In a video captured by a dash cam A local police car dashboard shows one plane descending as the other ascends, appearing to be on a collision course until the planes eventually pass each other. According to CBS News, at their closest point, the planes were just 725 feet, or 220 meters, from each other, with the American Airlines plane flying just above the Delta plane.

Episodes like these prompted the FAA to hold an aviation safety summit last year to address the problem. According to the agency’s website dedicated to These incidentsthere has been a 33% decrease in serious runway incursions in fiscal year 2024 compared to the previous year.