A shocking video has captured the damage left on an airplane, loaded with passengers, after it was clipped by another aircraft at an airport in Brazil on Monday.
Gol Airlines flight G3 1238 was on the taxiway at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo waiting to depart for Florianópolis when LATAM Airlines flight 3935, which had just arrived from Rio de Janeiro, collided with it as it was taxiing to the gate at 5pm.
Aena, which manages Congonhas Airport, said the incident was caused by a mechanical error with the pushback equipment connected to the Gol Airlines aircraft.
Pushback is a process in which a vehicle’s tow bar is hooked to the aircraft and pushes it backwards from its parked position to a taxi position.
The fuselage of a Gol Airlines aircraft that was damaged during a collision with LATAM Airlines plane that had just landed at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil on Monday. No injuries were reported
LATAM Airlines said that it was forced to cancel two flights after one of its aircrafts struck the fuselage of a Gol Airlines plane that was in the pushback process
Gol Airlines said in a statement to Brazilian news outlet G1 that the wing of the LATAM Airlines Airbus A319 hit the tail of its Boeing 737, leaving a huge gaping hole in the fuselage.
‘Customers disembarked safely, our number 1 priority, and were re-accommodated on another aircraft to continue their journey,’ the airline said.
‘All passengers and crew disembarked normally and in complete safety,’ LATAM Airlines said in its own statement. ‘The company clarifies that the aircraft was taken away for maintenance and that it is investigating the incident.’
The incident led to the cancellation of two LATAM Airlines flights, one that was set to depart from Congonhas Airport to President Afonso Pena International Airport in Curitiba and another flight from Curitiba to Congonhas Airport.
A LATAM Airlines plane (right) was taxiing after arriving at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil on Monday when one of its wing struck the tail of a parked Gol Airlines aircraft. No injuries were reported
A similar incident took place at Philadelphia International Airport in April when an American Airlines plane collided with a parked aircraft.
The wing of the loaded aircraft which was about to depart to Charlotte, according to the airline, hit an American Airlines jet and caused damage to its fuselage.
The injuries were reported to the passengers or crew members.
In January 2003, a JetBlue airplane hit an unoccupied aircraft from the same carrier during pushback at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.
The plane hit the tail of the parked jet and was taken back to the gate, where passengers deplaned and were placed on another aircraft for their trip to San Juan.