Two planes collided on the ground at Miami International Airport on Saturday night, less than 24 hours after the FAA grounded every flight in America. The wingtip of a Copa Airlines Boeing 737 struck the nose of a UPS Boeing 767 as both jets were taxiing, at around 9:15 p.m., injuring two people.
The Federal Aviation Administration said air traffic controllers had told the UPS crew to give way to the Copa flight before the two aircraft met at the intersection of two taxiways. The agency is investigating the collision.
The Copa jet, flight 427 from Panama City, had just landed and was heading for its gate with 166 passengers and six crew members on board. The UPS freighter, flight 358, was taxiing out for a flight to Bogotá, Colombia, when the two aircraft came together.
Inside the Copa cabin, passengers felt the impact before they understood it. “We were taxiing after landing at a normal speed when, all of a sudden, I heard the chatter around me getting louder, followed by a collective scream and then the impact of another aircraft hitting ours,” passenger Cesar Ferreira told CNN. “Inside the cabin, we felt the plane jerk abruptly sideways. At first, some passengers started freaking out, but the Copa crew reacted quickly, getting everyone to remain seated.”
About ten minutes later, the captain told passengers there was no imminent danger and that a tug would be brought in to move the plane. All 166 passengers and six crew members were able to leave the aircraft, and it was returned to the terminal.
“Somebody hit us,” the Copa pilot said over the radio. “Yeah, we went too far, and then he, he clipped us with the wing,” the UPS pilot replied. Minutes later, the Copa pilot added: “It seems that we are missing the left wingtip.”
A photo of the UPS plane shows its nose crumpled, with a gaping hole in the panels. Two people were treated at the scene by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue for minor injuries, and neither needed to be taken to a hospital, the airport said.
UPS said it is “committed to working with authorities to determine what happened” and that its crew was safe. Copa said it “regrets the disruption this incident may cause our passengers,” adding that passenger safety is its top priority and that it will cooperate with the investigation.
The airport said flights were directed to other taxiways and there was no impact on airport operations. But the timing is what makes this collision bigger than a taxiway bump. It came a day after the worst day in American aviation in years — and at the same airport where, 69 days earlier, a cargo jet overran a runway and killed five people on the ground.
On September 6, a Boeing 767 freighter flying for Amazon overran Runway 30 at Miami International, struck two vehicles and killed five people on the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board investigation into that crash is still open, with no probable cause determined.
That history is part of why the question everyone is asking matters: did Friday’s grounding cause Saturday’s collision? The honest answer right now is that nobody knows. The New York Post reported that it was not clear if the incident had anything to do with the residual effects of Friday’s nationwide ground stop, and the FAA has said nothing linking the two. What the agency has said is that its controllers told the UPS crew to give way — and that it is still investigating.
The grounding itself was the biggest aviation story of the year, and MythPost covered it as it happened — first the four-hour nationwide stop that halted every departing flight in America, then what actually broke: a single router, and a contractor swapping an old copper line for fibre.
THE STORY SO FAR
Friday, November 13, about 3:36 p.m. ET — The FAA starts seeing instability in radar and communications systems at air traffic control centres across the country.
Friday, November 13, about 4 p.m. ET — The FAA orders a nationwide ground stop, halting every departing flight in America. It is lifted at 8:15 p.m. ET — the second nationwide halt since September 11, 2001, and the first since January 2023.
Saturday, November 14, morning — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says a contractor switching an old copper line to fibre at a remote FAA site may be to blame. Officials stress there is no evidence of a cyberattack. FAA chief Bryan Bedford says full recovery is expected on Sunday, but warns the ageing technology “will continue to break until we replace it.”
Saturday, November 14, about 1 p.m. ET — More than 5,000 flights have already been canceled on Saturday alone, as airlines work to get planes and crews back into position.
Saturday, November 14, about 9:15 p.m. ET — At Miami International Airport, the wingtip of Copa flight 427 strikes the nose of UPS flight 358 at a taxiway intersection. Two people are treated at the scene for minor injuries.
Saturday night — All 166 passengers and six crew leave the Copa jet, which is towed back to the terminal. The airport says operations are unaffected.
Sunday, November 15 — The FAA investigation is open. No link to Friday’s ground stop has been established.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The FAA investigation will now establish the sequence at the taxiway: who moved, when, and whether the instructions the controllers gave were followed. The air traffic control audio is already public, and it is likely to be central to the findings.
The bigger question — whether the chaos left over from Friday’s grounding played any part — has no answer yet. Transportation Secretary Duffy warned on Friday that flight operations would be slow to rebound as airlines repositioned planes and crews. If the investigation finds the collision was a plain taxiing error, the story ends there. If it finds any connection to the strained system, it becomes a much larger one.
For travellers, the practical picture is this: Miami airport says operations are normal, and the FAA expects a full recovery on Sunday. But with thousands of flights still being rebooked after the grounding, anyone flying out of Miami today should check their flight’s status in the airline’s app before leaving for the airport.
And the airport itself is now under a sharper spotlight than it was a week ago. Two serious incidents in 69 days at the same airport — one deadly, one a near miss with 172 people on board — will keep investigators, and passengers, watching what happens there next.
