Japan Airlines flight bumps tail of Delta plane while taxiing at Seattle-Tacoma Airport

A Japan Airlines plane bumped into the tail of a Delta Air Lines flight on the ground Wednesday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Delta spokesperson Samantha Moore Facteau told CBS News in a statement that the aircraft, preparing to depart for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, was “in sequence for deicing” when its tail “made contact with a wing tip” of the Japan Airlines plane at about 10:17 a.m. Pacific Time.  

Sea-Tac Airport said in its own statement that the Japan Airlines plane was taxiing while the Delta flight was parked when the impact occurred. 

There were 142 passengers aboard Delta Air Lines Flight 1921 at the time, Facteau said. It’s unclear how many people were aboard Japan Airlines Flight 68, but airport officials said no injuries were reported on either flight. Passengers were deplaned from both. 

According to FlightAware, the Japan Airlines plane had just arrived in Seattle from Tokyo. 

Because the planes were near the concourse, they were not in an area that is under air traffic control, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident.

The FAA temporarily paused some flights, but Sea-Tac Airport said there was minimal impact.

Amid rising concerns about aviation safety in recent years, the agency said it has made nearly $12 billion in grant funding available to airports across the country from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law. 

More than $178 million has been allocated to Sea-Tac Airport, according to the FAA’s data, $31.5 million of which has been approved by Congress for improvement to the airport’s terminals.