The incident comes just days after a close call at the same airport, when two planes carrying passengers nearly collided on the runway.
The unoccupied plane, also owned by JetBlue, was parked at the time of the collision, which the airline company and Federal Aviation Administration say happened during pushback — when an aircraft is pushed back from its parked position, usually at the gate, before heading toward the tarmac to take off. The operating plane"struck the tail" of the parked one, then returned to the gate and transferred its passengers to a different aircraft, according to JetBlue and the FAA.
"On Wednesday morning, JetBlue flight 1603 with scheduled service from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport , came into light contact with a parked unoccupied aircraft during pushback," JetBlue said in a statement. The company went on to note that safety is its"first priority" and"both aircraft involved will be taken out of service for inspection" while the incident is investigated.
The FAA said it will lead the probe into Wednesday's collision in a separate statement sent to CBS News. The agency confirmed additional details about the accident as well, saying both JetBlue aircrafts involved are the same model, an Airbus 320. Wednesday's collision at JFK comes just a few days after a close call was reported at the same airport. On Friday, a Delta plane nearly collided with an American Airlines plane when the latter aircraft crossed a runway at JFK where the former craft was accelerating in preparation for takeoff.
."The NTSB is going to be wanting to understand what happened, why did this happen. Was there a distraction in the cockpit of the American flight? Was there misunderstanding as to the air traffic control clearance?"
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