Two planes collide on LaGuardia tarmac as gov shutdown strains air traffic controllers

Two planes collided with each other while on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Friday. One plane headed for Chicago made contact with another airport that was set to take off for Houston, Texas.

This comes as air traffic controllers have been short-staffed, with a government shutdown straining the problem further as staffers go without pay. The chaos on the tarmac took place when a United Airlines flight was turning into its gate when the aircraft clipped the tail of another United flight. The plane that was clipped was stationary at the time it got hit in the tail.

“We all felt a bump during taxi to the runway but didn’t know it was another plane until the captain said it was,” one passenger from the plane said after the collision. Video on the scene showed emergency vehicles rushing onto the scene when the collision occurred. Both planes returned to the gate after the incident, and no injuries were reported at the time among the 328 passengers and 5 crew members from both aircraft, per the New York Post.

Crews for maintenance have been evaluating the plane for malfunctions after the collision took place. Weather may have also played a factor, as ground delays were running an average of 2 hours and 15 minutes at the airport due to wind advisories. LaGuardia did not immediately comment on the collision, and the FAA was not able to because of the shutdown.

Secretary Sean Duffy has previously slammed Democrats in the Senate for not voting to pass a clean continuing resolution (CR) to open the government back up with the GOP. He warned that as air traffic controllers go on without pay and are forced to work a second job to pay the bills, "you’re going to have mass issues throughout the airspace."