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Two planes collide on taxiway at Miami airport one day after national grounding
The Guardian • • general
Key Points:
- Two planes, a Copa Airlines Boeing 737 and a UPS Boeing 767, collided on a taxiway at Miami International Airport Saturday night, resulting in minor injuries to two people who received medical treatment.
- The FAA reported that air traffic controllers had instructed the UPS flight to yield to the Copa flight before the collision, which occurred as the Copa plane was taxiing to the gate and the UPS plane was departing for Bogotá.
- Copa Airlines and UPS both expressed commitment to passenger and crew safety and pledged cooperation with authorities investigating the incident, while airport operations continued unaffected by rerouting flights to other taxiways.
- The collision occurred a day after a nationwide FAA ground stop caused by communication system maintenance issues, which led to thousands of flight delays and cancellations.
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy attributed the maintenance problems to insufficient congressional funding, though critics argue that allocated funds for upgrading the US air travel infrastructure have not been fully utilized by the administration.
