By Miho Inada and Peter Landers
TOKYO -- A Korean Air jet that was moving away from the gate in heavy snow touched a Cathay Pacific plane at an airport in northern Japan on Tuesday, the airlines said. No one was hurt and there was no fire, officials said.
Korean Air said the incident happened about 5:35 p.m. at New Chitose Airport near Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido. The Korean Air Airbus A330, scheduled to fly to Seoul with 276 passengers and 13 crew aboard, had just departed the gate and was in pushback, meaning it was getting into position to head to the runway with help from a ground handler vehicle.
The ground vehicle slipped because of heavy snow, causing the Korean Air jet to come into contact with a Cathay plane that was empty at the time, Korean Air said.
Officials said no one was hurt, and the fire department said it didn't send firefighters to the scene because there was no fire and no leakage of fuel.
A fire department official said the left wing of the Korean Air plane and the vertical stabilizer of the Cathay Pacific plane made contact. Television footage showed damage to the tip of the Korean Air jet's left wing and part of the rear of the Cathay Pacific plane.
The Korean Air passengers got off the plane and the airline said it would send a replacement plane to the Japanese airport so they could fly to Seoul.
Hokkaido, the northernmost main Japanese island, is a popular skiing destination.
On Jan. 2, a Japan Airlines jet arriving at Tokyo's Haneda Airport from New Chitose Airport collided with a Japan Coast Guard plane. The coast guard plane exploded, killing five of its six crew, while all 379 passengers and crew aboard the Japan Airlines jet escaped with minutes to spare.
The Tokyo collision happened under clear weather conditions. Investigators are examining why the coast guard plane entered the runway. Transcripts of communications with the control tower released so far show the coast guard plane was authorized to taxi to a holding point next to the runway but hadn't received authorization to take off.
Hiroyuki Kobayashi, a former Japan Airlines pilot, said bad weather was probably a factor in Tuesday's incident, unlike the earlier Tokyo collision. "It was stormy and the visibility was very bad," said Kobayashi. The driver of the ground vehicle might have had trouble seeing the distance between the two planes, he said.
Write to Miho Inada at miho.inada@wsj.com and Peter Landers at Peter.Landers@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 16, 2024 07:32 ET (12:32 GMT)
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