A UPS cargo jet clipped a Copa Airlines passenger plane on a Miami runway Saturday night, just hours after a nationwide telecom outage grounded flights.
Collision on Miami Runway
The UPS Boeing 757 bound for Bogota was taxiing when it struck Copa Airlines Flight CM427, which had just arrived from Panama City, carrying 166 passengers and six crew members; two minor injuries were reported.
“At approximately 9:15 p.m., an arriving aircraft and a departing aircraft made contact with each other at the intersection of two taxiways,” Greg Chin, communications director for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, said in a statement.
Flights were rerouted to alternate taxiways, and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue treated two patients on scene for minor injuries without requiring transport, Chin added.
Audio from the control tower captured the exchange: the controller told Copa 427 to proceed, the pilot reported being hit, and the controller instructed UPS 358 to give way to a 737, prompting the UPS pilot to acknowledge a runway change checklist.
UPS Airlines issued a statement confirming the crew’s safety and pledging cooperation with investigators, emphasizing that employee and public safety remained its highest priority.
The incident occurred less than a day after a widespread telecommunications failure halted flights across the United States for several hours.
