A UPS cargo pilot admitted fault after his Boeing 767 clipped a Copa Airlines passenger jet on the tarmac at Miami International Airport, leaving two people with minor injuries.
The collision occurred around 9:15 p.m. Saturday as both planes were taxiing at the intersection of two taxiways. Copa Airlines Flight, arriving from Panama City with 172 people aboard, had its wing strike the nose of UPS Flight 358, which was bound for Bogota, Colombia.
The cargo pilot’s acknowledgment came immediately after the incident in an exchange with air traffic control. “Somebody hit us,” the Copa pilot declared on flight radio moments after impact. The controller then asked the UPS crew: “UPS 358, did you hit that aircraft?” The pilot responded directly: “Yeah we went too far and he clipped us with his wing.”
Two patients received treatment at the scene from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue for minor injuries and did not require hospital transport, according to Greg Chin, communications director for Miami International Airport. Chin added that flights were being redirected to alternate taxiways, telling The Post that “Flights are being directed to other taxiways, so there is no impact to airport operations at this time.”
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the incident involved a Copa Airlines Boeing 737-800 and a UPS Boeing 767-300F, with the passenger jet’s wingtip striking the cargo plane’s nose while both aircraft were taxiing around 9 p.m. Local time.
The collision came just one day after a nationwide aviation ground stop disrupted flight operations across the country. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had warned Friday that flight operations would be slow to recover as airlines worked to reposition planes and crews following what officials described as tech-induced chaos. Federal Aviation Administration officials attributed that outage to either a botched contractor job or a faulty router affecting multiple facilities nationwide.
It remained unclear whether Saturday night’s collision was connected to the residual effects of that nationwide disruption.
The FAA continues to investigate the cause of the taxiway collision.