Florida. A major plane crash was averted on Saturday night at Miami International Airport in Florida, USA. At around 9.15 pm, a Boeing 767 cargo plane of UPS and a Boeing 737 passenger plane of Copa Airlines collided at the intersection of two taxiways of the airport (the road connecting the runway and the terminal). It was fortunate that the speed of both the planes was slow, due to which there was no major damage.
The incident occurred when UPS Flight 358 was preparing to take off from Miami to Bogota, Colombia, while Copa Airlines Flight 427 was approaching the terminal after landing from Panama City.
The entire incident of collision was captured in ATC audio.
After this incident, an audio of the conversation between Air Traffic Control (ATC) and pilots is becoming increasingly viral on social media. This audio clearly shows who was at fault. The ATC controller had instructed the UPS crew to give way to the Copa Airlines passenger plane first.
But the UPS plane went a little beyond the stipulated limit and came in the way of the passenger plane. “Yes, we went a little too far and the other plane rubbed us with its wing,” a pilot is heard saying in audio just after the collision.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the tip of the wing of Copa Airlines' Boeing 737 collided with the nose of UPS's Boeing 767 aircraft. Video taken by a passenger on a Copa Airlines flight clearly shows the damage to the front section of a UPS cargo plane.
Minor injuries to two people, flight operations continue at the airport
As soon as information about the collision was received, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue teams immediately reached the spot. According to local reports, two people suffered minor injuries in the minor collision, who were given first aid on the spot and did not need to be taken to hospital.
Miami International Airport communications director Greg Chin issued a statement saying that all aircraft have been diverted to other alternative taxiways, so there is no impact on the airport's normal operations.
Let us tell you that this accident has happened at a time when airports across America including Miami are already facing huge chaos. On Friday, November 13, the FAA imposed a temporary ground stop on flights across the country after ATC's outdated technology and radar system malfunctioned, causing thousands of flights to be canceled or delayed.