UPS and Copa Jets Collide at Miami Airport

The collision happened at about 9:15 p.m. at the junction of two taxiways, Miami International Airport communications director Greg Chin said. The two aircraft were a Boeing 767 operated by UPS and a Boeing 737 flown by Copa Airlines. Flights were directed to other taxiways, with no effect on airport operations, Chin said in a statement reported by CBS News Miami.

UPS Flight 358 was due to depart Miami for Bogotá, Colombia. Copa Flight 427 had arrived from Panama City, Panama.

In air traffic control audio, the UPS pilot told a controller that the aircraft had hit another plane. Asked whether the planes had collided, the pilot said they had gone too far and the other aircraft’s wing had clipped them.

A journalist who posted about the incident said the nose of one aircraft struck the other plane’s wing tip and that two people aboard the Copa flight had reported back pain. A fire department source characterized the incident as minor. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said there were no reported injuries.

The collision came as Miami airport was dealing with delays and cancellations after a nationwide FAA ground stop on Friday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the outage was linked to aging communications equipment being replaced, while FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said on Saturday the national flight timetable was expected to be back to normal by the end of Sunday.