Holidaymakers had a horrifying near-miss when their plane clipped the wing of another aircraft as they prepared to take off.
A Virgin Atlantic flight to London was delayed after the plane clipped wings with an Egypt Air flight on the runway at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Monday night.
The scare meant both planes had to return to the terminal with some passengers waiting overnight for another flight, and others delayed for some five hours as they tried to get home.
The Virgin Atlantic flight to London was delayed after the plane clipped wings with an Egypt Air flight on the runway
There were chaotic scenes on the runway after the two planes nearly collided – delaying passengers for several hours
The scare meant both planes had to return to the terminal at the John F. Kennedy International Airport
Both planes had been scheduled to leave New York at 6.30pm. Passengers later boarded another flight to London, which departed JFK nearly five hours later, at 11.20pm.
There were no reports of any injuries in the collision at 7.05pm.
Pictures taken by passengers at the scene showed the Virgin jet’s wing tip being loaded onto the back of a truck.
According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, the right wing of the Virgin Atlantic Airlines Flight 4C, an Airbus A333, touched the left wing of EgyptAir Flight 986, a Boeing 777 when both were taxying down the runway.
The Egypt Air flight was bound for Cairo.
Virgin passenger Diana Fleischman posted a photo on Twitter from the scene, adding: ‘Was about to fly to London on Virgin Flight VS0004 out of JFK – during taxi to the runway we collided with an aircraft taxiing next to us clipping our left wing – that’s the ground crew taking photos of the debris from the other aircraft.
‘We’re missing the tip of the wing on the left side.’
The right wing of the Virgin Atlantic Airlines Flight 4C, an Airbus A333, touched the left wing of EgyptAir Flight 986, a Boeing 777
Pictures taken by passengers at the scene showed the Virgin jet’s wing tip on the runway
‘Wingtip…in the back of a truck, unfortunately..’ tweeted another passenger, Kevin O’Hara, with a picture of the Virgin Atlantic wingtip in the back of a pick-up truck.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesman told MailOnline: ‘Our VS4 flight from New York to London Heathrow sustained damage to the wingtip whilst taxing to the runway at JFK airport yesterday.
‘Safety is always our priority, and all passengers and crew disembarked the aircraft as normal.
‘We’re arranging alternate travel for affected customers to enable them to continue their journeys as soon as possible, and we would like to thank them for their understanding during the delay.’
Virgin Atlantic said it had arranged for passengers to get home after the aircraft sustained damage in the collision
Emergency services raced to the scene at JFK Airport following the near-miss
This was not the first time planes have clipped wings on the runway.
In August this year, two Indonesian planes touched wings at the Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, in Indonesia.
An American Airlines flight heading for Dublin was in a wingtip collision with a Delta plane at JFK the same month and a United Airlines plane clipped a parked Lufthansa jet on the tarmac at Newark Airport in New Jersey in October, 2016.