‘It was very scary’: Planes collide on Logan Airport tarmac in two separate incidents – Boston News, Weather, Sports

BOSTON (WHDH) – There were two collisions between planes on the tarmac at Logan International Airport in Boston on Monday, according to Massport.

At about 6:30 p.m., a vehicle towing an empty JetBlue plane collided with a Cape Air plane that had just flown in from Nantucket, according to the airline. Two Cape Air pilots were hospitalized out of an abundance of caution.

“The tug has been decommissioned and the JetBlue aircraft is undergoing a thorough inspection. Safety is JetBlue’s top priority and we will investigate this incident,” JetBlue said in a statement.

Caroline Agid took a photo from inside the airport showing emergency services on the tarmac.

“There are just red lights everywhere,” Agid said. “It looks like the front top of the Cape Air plane was smashed.”

Lawrence Brown, a passenger on a nearby plane, said he saw the two planes through the window Monday evening.

“The plane suddenly screeched to a stop and I knew something had happened,” Brown said. “The pilot came and said we were waiting on the tarmac because two planes had an incident. We taxied by and I saw the nose of the JetBlue plane was so close to the Cape Air plane.”

Hours earlier, an American Airlines plane flying in from London’s Heathrow Airport made contact with a parked Frontier Airlines plane that was waiting for a rebound at the airport, according to both airlines.

Passengers were removed from both planes so the plane could be inspected for damage, Massport said.

The Frontier Airlines plane had been preparing to fly to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, but the flight was then canceled, according to the airline.

Massport said no injuries were reported.

SKY7-HD was live over Terminal E, where the two aircraft touched. The airport was packed with travelers leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday.

Some passengers on the Frontier Airlines plane said they felt a jolt as the plane made contact.

“That was terrible. It was very scary. Suddenly, boom. “It sounded like something fell from below,” said Evelyn Pipione, a border passenger.

Pipione and her daughter April O’Brien were upset that their flight was canceled Monday as they were trying to get to Dallas to attend to a family emergency.

“It’s terrible because my sister-in-law has stage four cancer, so we’re trying to see her,” O’Brien said.

Douglas Garcia, who was also on the Frontier flight, took photos of the wing through the plane window.

“So you can see that the wing is actually broken on the bottom, so the larger airplane has the wing broken, and then ours is cracked on the bottom,” Garcia said.

Passengers on the American Airlines flight said they were unaware their plane had contact with another.

“If I had known I was hit by a plane I would have been scared, but we didn’t know that. We didn’t feel anything,” said Joan Hale, an American Airlines passenger. “They just couldn’t get close enough to the gate, so they waited for someone to drag them another 20 meters or so. They didn’t come, so they brought stairs.”

The incident remains under investigation.

Mike Marxsen, the senior flight instructor at Beverly Flight Center, said these “runway robberies” are occurring more frequently now than ever before. He said he blamed personnel and training for the incidents.

“The people who are doing the jobs now are still in kind of a training mode rather than having experience and doing it for a long period of time because they’re trying to hire new people,” Marxsen said.

With Thanksgiving being one of the busiest travel times of the year, Marxsen said the airport itself is likely to be overwhelmed.

“You’re really trying to fill the system, and in this case the physical grounds of the airport, with as much traffic as possible because you’re trying to get everyone to their destination,” Marxsen said.

This is a developing news story; Stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest information.

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