Two Delta Airlines passenger planes have collided at LaGuardia Airport in New York City in a horror accident that ripped the wing off one jet.
The CRJ-900 regional jets, operated by Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air, were taxiing at low speed when they clipped each other about 9:56 pm on Wednesday.
Miraculously, only one person on board, a flight attendant, was injured in the frightening collision despite footage showing one plane’s wing had broken off.
All 85 passengers across both planes were forced to deplane the aircrafts and wait to be transferred to new flights. They have been placed in hotel rooms, offered meals, will be given new flight options to rebook flights tomorrow.
The crash marks the latest mishap for the aviation industry, which has faced mounting concerns amid widespread job cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration by the Trump administration.
A passenger on board described the horror moment his plane was ‘absolutely smashed’ by the other jet shortly after landing in New York on a flight from Charlotte.
‘We were taxiing to our runway and we got absolutely smashed by another Delta flight… I don’t know if we hit them or they hit us but it was super jarring,’ the CBS News producer said.
‘Everyone shot forward in their seats, it was a little chaotic, we were shocked at what happened.’
Both of the planes were taxiing at the time of the crash, which occurred on Wednesday night
Passengers and crew were seen on the runway after the damaged planes came to a stop
A passenger on board described the horror moment his plane was ‘absolutely smashed’ by the other jet shortly after landing in New York on a flight from Charlotte
The second plane involved in the crash, Endeavor Air flight 5155, was departing for Roanoke, Virginia. It collided with the fuselage of Endeavor Air flight 5047, the plane which had just arrived in from Charlotte.
‘Delta will work with all relevant authorities to review what occurred as the safety of our customers and people comes before all else. We apologize to our customers for the experience,’ a Delta spokesperson said.
A LaGuardia Airport spokesperson told Daily Mail the injured flight attendant ‘suffered non-life threatening injuries and was transported to hospital as a precautionary measure.’
Pictures taken in the aftermath of the crash show the nose of at least one of the planes suffered significant damage.
Crew members and passengers were seen on the tarmac, along with police, after the incident occurred.
‘Passengers were deplaned on the taxiway and transferred via buses back to Terminal C,’ the airport spokesperson said.
‘Passengers on the departing planes will be rebooked to another flight.’
The minor crash had no further impact to airport operations.
Two Delta Airlines planes have collided on the runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York
Insiders at the Federal Aviation Administration have been sounding the alarm for months over the potential ramifications of job cuts within the department.
There have been mounting concerns about the risk of accidents at airports across the nation as a result.
‘Air traffic controllers cannot do their work without us,’ an employee impacted by the cuts told Politico back in February.
‘To put it frankly, without our team… pilots would quite literally be flying blind,’ they added. The employee was cited as an anonymous source so they could speak freely about the terminations.
Earlier this year, a collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people.
In addition to the fatal crash in Washington DC on January 29, a small plane carrying 10 people crashed in Alaska on February 6, and two private jets collided at the Scottsdale Airport on February 10, killing one individual and injuring four.
An FAA department tasked with mapping deadly aviation obstacles such as skyscrapers and power lines was also slashed to a handful of staff under drastic DOGE cuts, Daily Mail revealed this year.
Insiders fear there are now so few cartographers logging potential hazards that planes could slam into buildings or towers as they navigate giant cityscapes like New York or Chicago.
Earlier this year, a collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people
A team of 20 or so aeronautical information specialists were previously responsible for maintaining a nationwide database listing the height and location of any man-made structure that could impact safety.
But under President Donald Trump’s sweeping purge of federal workers, the Obstacle Data Team has dwindled to a mere eight members, according to a whistleblower within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Those who remain warn that resources are stretched so thin that errors could creep into the material they provide for pilots, airlines and air traffic controllers and cause a crash.
‘A building could be mapped in the wrong place or the wrong height,’ the insider said.
‘It’s not far-fetched. We’re talking about the destruction of lives and airplanes.’
