Taxiing planes collide at Miami airport, injuring two

The wingtip of a Copa Airlines passenger jet struck the nose of a UPS cargo plane as both taxied at Miami International Airport on Saturday night, leaving two people with minor injuries and prompting a federal investigation.

The collision occurred at about 9 p.m. local time, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The Copa Airlines Boeing 737 was heading to a gate after landing, while the UPS Boeing 767 was taxiing for departure to Bogotá, Colombia. Air traffic controllers had instructed the UPS crew to give way to the Copa flight, according to the FAA.

Copa said its plane was carrying 166 passengers and six crew members. Greg Chin, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, said two people were treated at the scene and were not hospitalized. The FAA is investigating what happened.

Cesar Ferreira, a passenger on the Copa flight, told CNN he first realized something was wrong when voices around him grew louder.

“We were taxiing after landing at a normal speed when, all of a sudden, I heard the chatter around me getting louder – followed by a collective scream and then the impact of another aircraft hitting ours,” Ferreira said. “Inside the cabin, we felt the plane jerk abruptly sideways. At first, some passengers started freaking out, but the Copa crew reacted quickly, getting everyone to remain seated.”

Copa said it regretted the disruption to passengers and would cooperate with investigators. “The safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority,” the airline said.

UPS said its crew was safe and that it would work with authorities to determine what happened. “The safety of our employees and the public is our highest priority,” the company said. The airport directed flights to other taxiways, and operations were not affected, The Guardian reported.

The collision came a day after a separate, nationwide FAA ground stop caused by an air traffic control telecommunications problem. The stop lasted more than four hours and contributed to thousands of cancellations and delays. Officials believe a router problem during routine work caused the outage, NBC News reported.

The Trump administration said the work involved moving telecommunications lines from old copper wire to fiber-optic cables, according to The Guardian. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed a lack of congressional funding for the need for the maintenance, while critics said the White House had not spent money already allocated to upgrade air travel infrastructure, The Guardian reported.

Disruptions continued Sunday: As of 10:20 a.m. Eastern time, 1,583 flights within, into or out of the United States had been canceled and another 2,944 delayed, according to NBC News. Authorities have not said the telecommunications outage played any role in the Miami collision.