Delta Air Lines confirmed that one of its Airbus A350 planes, which was set to fly to Tokyo-Haneda, clipped the tail of a smaller CRJ-900 operated by Endeavor Air, which was scheduled to depart for Lafayette, Louisiana. The collision left the regional jet’s tail damaged and the Airbus A350’s wing in need of repair.
Delta immediately put out a statement:
“At approximately 10:07 a.m., the wing of an Airbus A350 taxiing out as DL295 from Atlanta to Tokyo-Haneda made contact with the tail of an Endeavor Air CRJ-900, DL5526 to Lafayette, Louisiana, on an adjacent taxiway, resulting in damage to the tail of the regional jet and the wing of the A350.
There have been no reported injuries at this time and customers are being transported back to the terminal where they will be reaccommodated on alternate flights.
There were 221 customers on DL295 and 56 customers on DL5526. At this time, no additional operational adjustments are expected. Delta is cooperating with the NTSB and other authorities on this incident.”
All operations continued as normal at the Atlanta airport and Delta’s TechOps teams relocated the aircraft to maintenance hangars for evaluation and investigation.