A Korean Air plane came into contact with a parked Cathay Pacific plane at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, Japan at 5.30 pm local time. No injuries were reported on either plane, Japanese media said.
Cathay said there were no passengers nor crew onboard flight CX583 on the ground at the time of contact while it was struck by Korean Air A330 that was taxiing past.
Cathay added that the flight – from Sapporo to Hong Kong – will not operate as scheduled and apologized to the affected customers.
There were 289 people on board the Korean Air plane, including 276 passengers and 13 crew members.
The accident happened when a towing car, which was pushing the Korean Air plane backwards ahead of departure, slipped due to snow on the ground, leading the airplane’s left wing to clip the Cathay Pacific plane, the Korean Air official said.
Korean Air Lines’ initial assessment attributed the cause to a groundhandler that was towing the airplane in heavy snow, the airline official said.
Airport firefighters were on standby following the accident, but no oil leaks or fires had been confirmed, according to Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting.
Hokkaido has been hit by a cold front in recent days with heavy snow warnings issued in several cities. According to reports, 46 flights were cancelled on Tuesday due to heavy snow.
The incident came just two weeks after a Japan Airlines plane smashed into a coastguard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, leaving five people dead.
(Staff reporter, Reuters and AFP)
(Updated at 6.58 pm)