Super jumbo jet clips another plane at JFK airport

By Daniel Acker, Bloomberg

An Air France Airbus A380 approaches John F. Kennedy International Airport on Nov. 20, 2009. The giant jet clipped a smaller plane on the tarmac Monday night.

EnlargeCloseBy Daniel Acker, Bloomberg

An Air France Airbus A380 approaches John F. Kennedy International Airport on Nov. 20, 2009. The giant jet clipped a smaller plane on the tarmac Monday night.

There were no injuries when the Air France super jumbo jet touched the other plane at 8:09 p.m., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jim Peters said.

Air France Flight 7, bound for Paris, was taxiing on a runway when its left wingtip struck the tail of Comair Flight 6293, which had just landed from Boston and was taxiing to its gate at Kennedy, one of the nation's busiest airports, Peters said.

Both jets were being towed to a ramp area for inspection, Peters said. The extent of the damage was unknown.

The FAA didn't immediately say how many people were on the double-deck Airbus A380, which can carry 525 passengers in a three-class configuration or more than 850 in a single-class configuration. Air France didn't immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

The Comair CRJ 700 Regional Jet was carrying 62 passengers and four crewmembers, said Betsy Talton, a spokeswoman of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc., for which Comair operates regional flights. All the passengers were taken off the plane and into a terminal, she said.

The most serious safety scare for the world's largest and newest jetliners occurred last year, when a Rolls-Royce engine on a Qantas A380 disintegrated shortly after takeoff from Singapore, prompting Qantas to temporarily ground its fleet. A preliminary report blamed the massive engine failure on an oil leak.

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Air France jet clips smaller plane at New York's JFK airport

Jumbo jet clips plane at JFK AirportSTORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: NTSB will investigate incidentAn Air France jet clipped a Delta Connection plane, a Delta official saysA CNN reporter on the Air France plane says it stopped after a slight rumbleA Port Authority spokeswoman says there were no injuries on either plane New York (CNN) -- The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that it will investigate what happened Monday night when a massive Air France jet clipped a smaller regional aircraft at John F. Kennedy Airport.

The incident, caught on amateur video, shows the Air France Airbus 380 clipping the smaller plane while taxiing to the runway for takeoff.

CNN Correspondent Jim Bittermann, who was on the Air France flight headed to Paris, said that he felt a slight rumble -- akin to hitting a patch of rough pavement -- as his plane was moving on the ground Monday at about 8:15 p.m.

The pilot then stopped the aircraft, which is regarded as the world's biggest passenger jet, and eventually fire department crews surrounded it and the other plane.

The tail of Comair Flight 6293, a Delta Connection flight that had recently arrived from Boston, was struck by the Air France aircraft while waiting to park at the New York airport, said Delta spokeswoman Betsy Talton.

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