Delta plane collision to be investigated by FAA

Atlanta, Georgia - At Atlanta airport Tuesday mid-morning morning, a Delta Airlines jumbo jet with 221 Tokyo-bound passengers collided with and knocked the tail off a much smaller Lafayette, Louisiana-bound Delta Endeavor Air regional jet with 56 passengers on board.

The big 300-ton Delta A350 whacked off the tail of a 35-ton Delta Endeavor regional jet. Amazingly, no one was injured and no fire ensued. Nonetheless, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a statement that it will investigate the incident as part of a wider inquiry into close calls.

Aviation accident attorney Mary Schiavo is a former Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation which oversees the Federal Aviation Administration.  

"The end of that plane was a little bit into the taxiway. So, if that's the case, the large plane that was taxiing would have had to give way, to give right-of-way literally, to the other aircraft on the other taxiway," said Schiavo.

"So, it could be pilot error if the plane was not being tugged . Also, if the pilot did not stay on the taxiway center line. You should not go clipping any other aircraft as long as you stay in line on the designated guideline. But, if ground controllers directed the pilot to a taxiway that was improperly marked or not rated to handle jumbo jets, or too close to the other taxiway, controllers might be a fault. "That does surprise me that the tail just literally seemed to snap off," said Schiavo.

If the damaged aircraft was relatively new, it's likely to be repaired and put back into service. "This is something that the passengers will never know," said the former Inspector General.

Since there were no injuries, the National Transportation Safety Board is not legally required to investigate. But, trends are fair game for NTSB, so it will investigate. 

Schiavo says the worst trend right now is an uptick in near misses and collisions, especially at airports, runways, and taxiways.

Though many major airports have sophisticated ground surveillance systems for ground controllers to keep planes from colliding, many still don't.  

The FAA says that Hartsfield/Atlanta airport has state-of-the-art technology to prevent runway collisions but, like all airports, does not have  taxiway safety technology.