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Two airplanes clip each other, no injuries

Two airplanes clip on the taxiway at Newark, N.J., airport. A Scandinavian Airlines' left airplane wing clipped the tail of a United Airlines airplane, ripping a portion of the left wing.

  • By Staff Associated Press

| Newark, N.J.

Two airplanes taxiing while preparing for takeoff at Newark Liberty International Airport clipped each other, leaving one of the planes with a portion of its left wing ripped away.

No one was injured when the planes touched around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at one of the nation's busiest airports, Federal Aviation Administration officials said. A Scandinavian Airlines plane's left wing clipped the tail of a United Airlines plane while they were on a taxiway. Photos and video from the scene showed a significant portion of the left wing jaggedly torn off.

Scandinavian Airlines Flight 908, bound for Oslo, Norway, was directly behind ExpressJet Flight 4226, destined for Nashville, Tenn., on the taxiway and was turning right to get onto another taxiway when its wing clipped the ExpressJet plane's tail, officials said.

The ExpressJet plane was towed back to the gate, and the Scandinavian Airlines plane taxied back to the gate, where passengers disembarked, New York's WNBC-TV reported.

The accident is being investigated. Scandinavian Airlines, which has hubs in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, didn't immediately respond to telephone messages and emails seeking comment. The aircraft was an Airbus A330.

ExpressJet Airlines released a statement Wednesday night:

"ExpressJet Flight 4226, operating as United Express, from Newark (EWR) to Nashville (BNA) was on the taxiway in EWR when its tail was contacted by another aircraft. All 31 passengers deplaned the aircraft normally and were bussed to the terminal where they are being re-accommodated. ExpressJet is working in coordination with officials to determine the cause,” ExpressJet said in a statement.

ExpressJet, which bills itself as the world's largest regional airline, operates as a United Express partner from United's Newark hub. United, which has headquarters in Chicago, is part of United Continental Holdings Inc.

In April 2011, two commercial aircraft clipped each other at JFK airport. As The Christian Science Monitor reported: 

The massive Air France A380 clipped the tail of a smaller Delta jet at John F. Kennedy airport in New York. The Paris-bound Air France jet was taxiing toward the runway when it spun Comair Flight 6293, a Delta Connection flight that had arrived minutes early from Boston. Both aircraft suffered minor damage.

An amateur video caught the incident, which shows the smaller jet being pushed about 45 degrees by the A380.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

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