Two United Airlines aircraft collide at New Jersey airport amid spate of near misses

Two United Airlines planes clipped wings on the tarmac at Newark Liberty International amid a spate of high-profile near misses at U.S. airports.

A Boeing 757 bound for Orlando, Florida, was struck by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner before the pilot announced to passengers: ‘Obviously, our wing has been clipped.’

The Federal Aviation Authority is investigating the incident, which happened last Friday morning. It came before a near-catastrophic incident in Austin on Saturday when a FedEx cargo flight came within less than 100ft of colliding with a Southwest Airlines passenger jet.

Another terrifying near miss at JFK in January has also fueled concerns about an ‘alarming’ increase in such incidents at airports in the U.S.

During the Newark incident, Flight 2135 to Orlando was parked at its gate when the larger plane, which had recently arrived from Johannesburg in South Africa, struck the wing.

A Boeing 757 bound for Orlando, Florida, was struck by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday. Stock photo.

The Orlando-bound aircraft had just returned to the gate because of a maintenance issue, passenger Rebecca Blum said.

She said she felt a ‘jolt [then] looked outside and saw as clear as day the wing of a larger plane had clipped our wing. Definitely heard it. Felt it mildly I would say, but more the noise. I think we were thinking, what was that?’

Passengers were able to disembark safely before another plane was arranged a couple of hours later, at around 11.40am.

The FAA said: ‘The United Flight 2135 was struck by a Boeing 787, a Dreamliner, that arrived from Johannesburg, South Africa earlier in the morning. The much larger plane was being relocated by a tug when it made contact with the smaller Boeing 757, parked at the gate.’

Photos of the damage show the tip of the wing on one aircraft was torn off by the collision. Port Authority police and fire department crews were seen carrying away the broken piece of wing.

Less than 24 hours later, on Saturday morning, a FedEx airplane came within less than 100 feet of a Southwest commercial flight with 128 people on board during a terrifying near miss in Austin.

The incident at Newark happened hours before a near miss in Austin. A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737, in yellow, had remained on the runway as a FedEx Boeing 767, in orange, had been cleared to land

In another near miss at JFK on January 13, a Delta aircraft which was about to take off had to perform an emergency stop after an American Airlines plane crossed onto the runway

Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, revealed on Monday that the planes narrowly a disastrous collision.

The Boeing 767 FedEx flight was approaching the runway with poor visibility while a Southwest Boeing 737 was cleared for takeoff.

The FedEx flight was several miles from the airport when it was cleared to land, according to the FAA.

But as it was about to touch down, an air traffic controller also gave the go-ahead for the Southwest Boeing 737 to take off on the exact same stretch of tarmac.

The Southwest flight to Cancun, Mexico still continued its takeoff even while the FedEx cargo plane was directly above it.

The Southwest jet was able to depart safely, according to the FAA.

The incident follows a similar near miss at John F. Kennedy International in New York City on Friday, January 13, when a Delta flight was forced to perform an emergency stop during takeoff while an American Airlines plane crossed the same runway. 

The Delta plane stopped about 1,000 feet from where the American Airlines plane had crossed from an adjacent taxiway.