*CHICAGO – Two United Airlines planes collided on the airfield at Chicago’sO’Hare International Airport on Wednesday afternoon.*
Around 4:20 p.m., Flight 645 was taxiing from Gate C30 when the aircraft’sleft wing clipped the left wing of Flight 2746, the Chicago-Sun Timesreported.
Federal Aviation Administration rep Tony Molinaro confirmed that bothUnited planes sustained damage to their wings in the accident.According to CBS Chicago, the Portland-bound Flight 645 had passengers onboard and the incident ultimately delayed their trip by two hours. Flight2746, bound for Cleveland, was eventually canceled.The FAA is investigating, the Sun-Times reported.
“I’d call that a minor accident,” one witness said of the scene. “I noticeda lot of people over by the windows looking out, wondering what was goingon. A lot of airport employees, people with their cameras up,” witnessAlexandra Carley told CBS.
“Our plane that was supposed to come into O’Hare had to circle around for awhile after the accident and by that point, the weather got bad,” Unitedpassenger Melissa Wester said.
“This many planes in this area, this many times a week. Something is boundto happen at some point. I’d call that a minor accident,” United passengerMark Ritchie, who witnessed the accident from a flight nearby, told theoutlet.
“Prior to its departure on Wednesday afternoon for Portland, Oregon, Unitedflight 645’s wingtip came into contact with the wingtip of another aircraftparked at a nearby gate. There were no customers on board the parkedaircraft at the time of the incident and no reported injuries on eitheraircraft,” a spokesperson for United Airlines stated.
“We assisted our customers and operated the flight to Portland with adifferent aircraft. The flight departed at 6:32 p.m. yesterday.” – Agencies