PLANES CLIP WINGS AT YVR

Posted on 11/25/2016

The wings of two airplanes at Vancouver's airport came into contact on Thursday morning, but no passengers were aboard either aircraft. Terry Chou of the Vancouver Airport Authority said a United Airlines and a WestJet plane clipped wings on the tarmac at about 8 a.m. PT.

Chou said airport operations were not affected but that he could not provide further details.United Airlines spokesperson Charlie Hobart said an aircraft was being towed when it clipped a WestJet plane and that damage was expected to be minimal.He said another plane was used for passengers departing to San Francisco for a flight that was set to leave on time at 12:30 PT.The CBC reports Hobart saying that empty planes docking at a gate are subject to the same rules and grounds-crew guidance as an aircraft full of passengers."The grounds crews are all professionals," Hobart said. "I can't speak for the folks in Vancouver, but in terms of this kind of incident happening, it doesn't happen very often."WestJet spokesperson Lauren Stewart said a stationary plane was about to pull in to be loaded before taking off for Palm Springs and that another aircraft was brought in for the flight that was delayed by about three hours.