Two plane collisions at Logan Airport remain under investigation. Aviation experts say incidents like these are rare, and it’s certainly not what you’d want to hear leading into a busy holiday travel week.
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As Thanksgiving approaches, millions of people across the country are gearing up for the holiday travel rush, but there's some concern among travelers going through Logan Airport after two plane collisions in less than 24 hours.
The first incident happened at around 11 a.m. Monday, when an American Airlines plane that had just landed from London made contact with a Frontier Airlines plane that was awaiting pushback from the gate.
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“I was on the wing where it hit, so you can see the wing actually broke on the bottom," Frontier passenger Douglas Garcia said.
“All of a sudden we just felt this... I didn't know what it was. I'm like, 'What's that?' and then all of a sudden, I looked out the window, it was right outside my window. The American Airlines went right into our wing,” said April O’Brien, another Frontier passenger.
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That plane was supposed to head to Dallas-Fort Worth, but all 200 passengers onboard had to be rebooked, as both aircraft sustained damage in the collission.
Then, at around 5 p.m., Massport, a tug vehicle towing an empty JetBlue aircraft struck a Cape Air plane at a slow rate of speed. The Cape Air flight had just landed from Nantucket, with three passengers and two crew members onboard.
The two pilots were taken to the hospital as a precaution, but Cape Air said that there were no major injuries. That aircraft was also taken out of service for an inspection.
“You see just like the swarm of emergency lights and I’m like, ‘Oh, oh great,’” said Caroline Agid, whose JetBlue flight was delayed. “I texted my mom that it had happened, and she’s like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s the second one today!’”
JetBlue issued a statement to NBC10 Boston Tuesday morning.
"A JetBlue tug towing an empty aircraft made contact with a Cape Air aircraft at Boston Logan International Airport. No injuries to JetBlue crewmembers were reported. The tug has been removed from service, and the JetBlue aircraft will undergo a thorough inspection. Safety is JetBlue's first priority, and we will investigate this incident."
Though there were no serious injuries, the two incidents definitely added some anxiety for already stressed out Thanksgiving travelers.
“I don’t like flying anyway, so it’s not great to hear, but hopefully today is better," said Taylor Gotscall, who was flying from Logan to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Janelle Carlton, who was flying home to Minneapolis, said, “I just didn’t want it to affect any travel today because we need to get home today.”
Aviation experts say two incidents like this happening in one day is extremely unlikely. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating both.
“I think what we're seeing these days at airports across the country is that they're crowded, they're busy, there's a lot going on and there's very little margin for error," said Seth Miller, an aviation expert with PaxEx.Aero. "And so, you know, everybody has to be paying 100% attention all of the time, and if anything slips through you get the potential for something like this to happen.”
"That we got two at the same day in Boston is kind of amazing," he added. "It's very rare."
