UPS freighter and Copa Airlines jet clip wings on runway; over 6,500 flights canceled for second day

Miami International Airport [EPA]
Miami International Airport [EPA]

A UPS cargo plane and a Copa Airlines passenger jet collided on a taxiway at Miami International Airport on Saturday (local time), as flight disruptions from a nationwide communications outage stretched into a second day.

Bloomberg, citing data from flight-tracking site FlightRadar24, said the incident occurred at around 9 p.m. Eastern time Saturday (11 a.m. Sunday Korean Standard Time).

Audio posted on air traffic control monitoring site ATC.com indicated that a UPS Boeing 767 freighter crossed into the path of Copa Airlines Flight 427, a Boeing 737 that had just arrived from Panama, clipping the passenger jet. One controller said the UPS aircraft should have yielded to the Copa Airlines plane.

When a controller asked whether a collision had occurred, the UPS pilot said the freighter had gone too far and that the other aircraft had struck it with a wing. The exchange was recorded. Bloomberg said it sought comment from UPS and Copa Airlines but did not receive an immediate response. No injuries or details on aircraft damage were confirmed in reports.

The incident unfolded amid broader aviation chaos. A communications outage and related disruptions brought departures across the United States to a halt for roughly four and a half hours on Friday afternoon, with cancellations and delays carrying over into Saturday.

By 10:40 p.m. Saturday, more than 6,500 domestic and international flights to and from the United States had been canceled and 8,200 delayed, according to aviation data firm FlightAware. Domestic routes bore the brunt of the disruptions.

In response, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he would formally ask Congress on Monday to approve $50 billion in emergency funding for a full overhaul of the air traffic control system.


andy@heraldcorp.com