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No one was injured, but a passenger on one of the planes described “violent shaking” and a “really loud crunching sound.”
Feb. 5, 2025Updated 5:48 p.m. ET
A Japan Airlines plane clipped a parked Delta Air Lines plane while taxiing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Wednesday, leaving the wing of the Japanese plane impaled on the tail of the Delta jet.
Delta said the Boeing 737 that was struck had 142 passengers aboard. The plane, which was operating as Flight 1921, was scheduled to fly to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and was in line for de-icing when it was hit, Delta said.
“There are no reports of injuries for crew or customers on the flight, and we apologize for the experience and delay in travels,” Delta said. Japan Airlines did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The Federal Aviation Administration said that the Japan Airlines plane was Flight 68, which had landed at the airport after flying for more than eight hours from Tokyo. The planes were in an area that is not under air traffic control, the F.A.A. said, adding that it had paused some flights at the airport after the episode and was investigating.
Police and firefighters responded at 10:17 a.m. and worked with both airlines to get passengers off the planes and into the terminal, the airport said in a statement. It confirmed that there had been no reports of injuries and said the impact on airport operations was “minimal.”
Jackie Patton, a Vancouver resident, was sitting in a window seat on the Delta plane, on her way to meet her parents for a vacation in Puerto Vallarta, when the collision happened. She described “violent shaking in the plane and a really loud crunching sound.”
“It was obvious right away something was wrong,” Ms. Patton said in an interview. The pilot later confirmed that the plane had been hit, Ms. Patton said.
“It was very scary,” she said.
A video posted by Ms. Patton on social media shows people reacting with astonishment as they see the wing of the Japan Airlines plane after it had sliced into the tail of the Delta jet.
The safety of airline travel in the United States has been under intense scrutiny since an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army helicopter collided in midair and crashed into the Potomac River in Washington last week, killing 67 people.
On Friday night, a small medical plane carrying six people crashed near a shopping center in Northeast Philadelphia, killing all on board and one person on the ground, the authorities said.
And on Sunday, a United Airlines flight from Houston to New York was evacuated because of flames coming from an engine, video showed.
Ms. Patton said she was already a “nervous flier” and had been particularly worried about flying since the collision over the Potomac.
While this incident was nowhere near as devastating, she said, “it was still very shocking and, to be honest, surprising that these planes could get so close together.”
