Extraordinary video images have emerged of an Air France Airbus A380 colliding with a Comair Bombardier CRJ700 during taxiing at New York JFK.
Air France has grounded the aircraft, which suffered damage to its left wing, while the CRJ has similarly been taken out of service with damage to its empennage.
The Air France jet was operating flight AF007 to Paris Charles de Gaulle on 11 April. The carrier says it was transporting 495 passengers, 22 cabin crew and three pilots.
A spokesman for Air France says the A380 "clipped the tail fin" of the Comair jet – which had arrived from Boston as flight DL6293 – while the CRJ was parked.
"It only caused material damage," he says, but confirms both aircraft have been grounded. He adds that Air France has been placing affected passengers on alternative flights.
JFK ground control communication records show that, at about 20:05, the A380 was given instruction for runway 22R, and was cleared to turn left on taxiway A and hold short of taxiway E.
After another aircraft called to request clearance to taxiway KD, the A380 was told to give way to opposite direction traffic, which the crew acknowledged.
But less than a minute later the pilots of the CRJ700 crew, using the callsign Comair 553, told JFK controllers: "Send a truck, they just hit us at [taxiway] Mike."
Another aircraft, initially instructed to follow the A380 to KD, was then told by controllers: "Don’t make the left on Alpha. Air France, they think they might have hit somebody.
"Emergency crews were summoned to the intersection of taxiways A and M on the southwestern side of the airport.
Controllers informed emergency services of the incident and added that the CRJ crew was evacuating passengers. The A380 crew was also asked to shut down the engines of the aircraft, at the request of the emergency response teams.
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Source: Flight International
