The airline whose jet clipped another plane on a taxiway at Newark Airport and lost part of a wing is investigating the incident, authorities said yesterday.
Scandinavian Airlines, widely known as SAS, wouldn’t speculate on why the left wing of one of its jets clipped the tail of a United Airlines plane on Wednesday night as both prepared for takeoff.
No one was injured, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
SAS Flight 908, bound for Oslo, Norway, was behind ExpressJet Flight 4226, destined for Nashville, Tenn., and was turning right to enter another taxiway when it touched the ExpressJet plane, officials said.
Photos and video from the scene showed a significant portion of the SAS jet’s left wing jaggedly torn off.
After the planes were grounded, other flight accommodations were made so the passengers, 31 on the ExpressJet and more than 70 on the Scandinavian Airlines jet, could get to their destinations.
Besides the SAS probe, federal authorities also were investigating. ExpressJet Airlines said it was “working in coordination with officials to determine a cause.”
ExpressJet, which bills itself as the world’s largest regional airline, operates as a United Express partner from United’s hub at Newark Airport.