American Airlines Baggage Cart Hits United Airlines Boeing 737

A video showed an American Airlines baggage cart hitting a parked United Airlines Boeing 737-900ER at Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD).

The video, shared on X (formerly Twitter), showed the American Airlines-branded baggage cart slamming into the underside of the United Airlines Boeing 737-900ER, which was parked at the gate with a jet bridge attached to it.

Pictures of the aftermath showed significant damage to the underside of the 737’s fuselage just aft of the radome. The images also showed the jet’s external AC power receptacle being open, but it remains unclear whether the port or the receptacle itself was damaged in the incident.

The aircraft, registered as N75425, had just recently arrived at ORD on United Airlines flight UA1664 from Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ), the Dominican Republic, on August 26, 2023. It remains at the airport at the time of writing.

The Boeing 737-900ER was delivered new to Continental Airlines in June 2008 and was transferred to United Airlines following the pair’s merger in 2011. As of May 31, 2023, the aircraft accumulated 47,471 flight hours (FH) and 16,685 flight cycles (FC), ch-aviation.com data showed, with the data provider estimating a further 285.9 FH and 108 FC and 295.43 FH and 112 FC in June and July 2023, respectively.