Two planes collided on a snow-covered tarmac at an airport in Japan Tuesday, the second aircraft crash in the country in as many weeks after a clipped passenger jet burst into flames on a runway.
A Korean Air Lines flight clipped the wing of a parked Cathay Pacific Airways plane at New Chitose Airport on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido amid wintry weather, a Korean Air official said.
No injuries were reported on either aircraft, and no fire or fuel leaks were detected, a fire department spokesperson told local news outlets.
Korean Air Flight 766 bound for Seoul, South Korea, had 289 passengers and crew members on board at the time of the incident, which occurred as the plane was preparing for takeoff, an airline official said.
Japanese media had conflicting information on whether passengers were on board the Cathay Pacific plane, but Kyodo News agency reported that it was empty.
The collision happened around 5:30 pm local time, when a towing car pushing the Korean Air plane backwards towards a runway ahead of departure slipped on some snow, leading the jet’s left wing to bump the Cathay Pacific plane’s right tail wing, the Korean Air official said.
There was no immediate word on the severity of damage to the aircraft, or what exactly caused the taxiing jet to clip the parked one.
The incident comes two weeks after a deadly crash at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, where Japan Airlines Flight 516 carrying 379 people burst into flames after colliding with a coast guard plane.
Dramatic footage showed terrified passengers, among them children, escaping the burning jetliner after the crash, which killed five of the six crew members aboard the smaller military earthquake relief plane.
The Tokyo airport collision is still under investigation by transportation authorities, who are looking at communications between air traffic controllers and the two planes.
More than 80 domestic and international flights departing and arriving New Chitose Airport have been canceled due to bad weather Tuesday, the airport spokesperson said.
With Post wires