It could have been a catastrophic disaster two airliners came so close together their wings collided at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport very early on Wednesday morning.
According to airport officials the incident occurred when an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft was being pushed back from stand 87 at 2.25am. It struck the wing of an Air India's Airbus A320 that was stationary.
Whilst no passengers were injured in the incident it did cause delays for those on-board The Ethiopian aircraft that was operating flight ET 687 to Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Airlines apologised to its passengers and said, “We flew with an substitute aircraft to continue with flight service.”
The Air India official said the national carrier will be claiming damages from Ethiopian Airlines. Luckily, damage was only limited to the wingtips of each aircraft, but had the engines of either aircraft been running, the damage could have been much worse.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe into the incident.
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