Two passenger planes collide at Japanese airport weeks after deadly crash inferno

A Korean Air aircraft with 289 people on board collided with a parked Cathay Pacific plane on Tuesday while taxiing to a runway at New Chitose Airport in northern Japan but no fire or injuries were reported, as confirmed by the local fire department. This incident happened just two weeks after a deadly collision between a Japan Airlines airliner and a coast guard plane on a runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. In the incident, passengers had to make an emergency exit due to a fire, leading to the tragic death of five out of the six crew members on the smaller plane. On Tuesday, the KAL plane had just started moving away from its parking spot to head to a runway for takeout when it bumped into the empty Cathay Pacific plane parked next to it, according to the Chitose City Fire Department. None of the KAL plane’s 276 passengers and 13 crew members were injured, and no fire or fuel leaks were detected, the fire department said. It said the main left wing of the KAL airliner came into contact with the vertical stabilizer of the Cathay Pacific plane. No other details, including the extent of the damage to the aircraft or what caused the taxiing aircraft to hit the parked one, were immediately available. Transportation officials are investigating the cause of the fatal Haneda Airport collision, focusing on the communication between air traffic controllers and the two planes. The Cathay Pacific aircraft was parked on the tarmac when it was struck by the moving Korean Air plane, media reports quoted the fire department as saying. There were 289 passengers on board the Korean Air plane during the incident, STV Japan said. No injuries were reported, Japanese broadcaster NTV said. ‘Cathay Pacific confirms that there was an incident involving a Cathay Pacific aircraft while it was parked at New Chitose Airport in Sapporo today (16 January),’ Cathay said in a statement. ‘Our aircraft, which was stationary at the time with no customers nor crew onboard, was struck by a Korean Air A330 which was taxiing past.’