Two Passenger Planes Collided on the Runway at London Heathrow

On Wednesday evening, a pair of passenger jets were involved in a “minor collision” on the runway at London Heathrow Airport, an airport spokesperson told The Guardian.

Emergency services were rushed to the scene, although there were no reported injuries as a result of the accident. An airport spokesperson said that it had little impact on the airport’s operations, arrivals and departures.

The alarming mishap, which involved passenger planes from Korean Air and Icelandair, occurred around 8:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday. Heathrow said authorities have already initiated an investigation of the incident.

A spokesperson told Insider, “Yesterday evening our teams responded to a minor collision between two aircraft on the airfield. There were no injuries as a result of the incident and all passengers and crew were safely disembarked.”

A Korean Air spokesperson told the outlet, “While taxiing for departure at London’s Heathrow airport, Korean Air flight 908’s left winglet came into contact with the tail rudder of an Icelandair B757 aircraft that was taxiing after landing.”

They also emphasized that the airline is doing everything in its power to minimize the inconvenience the whole affair caused for passengers and is cooperating with official investigations.

Pre-pandemic, Heathrow was easily one of the world’s busiest airports, with passenger traffic topping 81 million travelers annually. In the first eight months of 2022, 38 million have traversed the London airport.

Throughout 2022, and particularly this past summer, many passengers have had to contend with massive delays, widespread cancelations, and long lines at check-in and security, due to airlines’ and airports’ inability to cope with an unforeseen onslaught of post-pandemic travelers.

Back in July, Heathrow was even forced to cap the number of passengers allowed to depart the airport each day at 100,000, just to make operations manageable.