A collision involving two aircraft occurred on Saturday evening at Miami International Airport, just one day after a nationwide flight disruption due to a communications failure in air traffic control.
The incident happened around 9 p.m. ET when the wingtip of a Copa Airlines Boeing 737 made contact with the nose of a UPS Boeing 767 while both planes were taxiing. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Copa Airlines flight was approaching the gate, whereas the UPS aircraft was preparing for departure to Bogotá, Colombia. The Copa flight carried six crew members and 166 passengers at the time.
In the aftermath of the collision, two individuals received treatment for minor injuries at the scene but did not require hospitalization, as confirmed by Greg Chin, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department.
The FAA clarified that air traffic controllers had instructed the UPS flight to yield to the Copa aircraft, raising questions about the communication processes involved. In a statement, UPS acknowledged the incident and emphasized its commitment to cooperating with authorities for a thorough investigation. “The safety of our employees and the public is our highest priority,” the company stated.
This collision unfolded shortly after the FAA implemented an unusual nationwide ground stop due to a widespread telecommunications problem affecting air traffic control operations. That disruption lasted over four hours, resulting in cancellations and delays for thousands of flights. Officials attributed the outage to a router issue that occurred during routine maintenance work.
As of Sunday morning, 1,583 flights had been canceled within, into, or out of the United States, with an additional 2,944 flights experiencing delays.
It is noteworthy that this incident follows a tragic event from the previous year, where a UPS cargo plane crash near Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport resulted in the loss of 15 lives.
