Two Delta regional jets made contact on a New York LaGuardia (LGA) taxiway, causing minor damage and one non-life-threatening injury to a flight attendant.

Two Delta Jets Collide On LaGuardia Taxiway

The incident occurred just before 10 p.m. and involved two Endeavor Air-operated CRJ-900 regional jets, a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines. One aircraft, Delta flight 5047, was arriving from Charlotte (CLT) and another, Delta flight 5155, was preparing to depart for Roanoke (ROA) when the departing aircraft’s wing clipped the fuselage of the arriving aircraft during taxi.

Delta said the collision was at “low speed.” A flight attendant sustained a minor injury and was treated at the scene. No passengers were reported injured. Both aircraft were taken out of service for inspection and repair. Per Delta:

Delta teams at our New York-LaGuardia hub are working to ensure our customers are taken care of after two Delta Connection aircraft operated by Endeavor Air were involved in a low-speed collision during taxi.

Delta will work with all relevant authorities to review what occurred as safety of our customers and people comes before all else. We apologize to our customers for the experience.

Passengers were deplaned by bus and rebooked. Delta issued meal vouchers and hotel accommodations as needed and says it is cooperating with airport authorities while the incident is investigated. The Port Authority reported no significant impact to overall airport operations.

I’m not going to overdramatize this collision, but I’m also not going to minimize it because it appears that someone was not paying attention…and while the damage here is primarily limited to property, not people, even the removal of these two aircraft from service will have a cascading effect and was likely preventable.

CONCLUSION

Two Delta jets collided in LGA, injuring a flight attendant and damaging both aircraft. Delta handled the immediate customer impact appropriately with rebooking and care, downplaying the seriousness of the collision. But now an investigation must clarify root causes and corrective steps to prevent such a needless accident in the future.

image: @oren_juice / X