Two incidents within a week. Landing on a taxiway is somewhat shocking! http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4302384.html --- NEWARK, N.J. Federal authorities were investigating at one of the nation's busiest airports today after two airliners clipped wings on a taxiway and another jetliner landed in the wrong place. The two incident happened in the span of a week at Newark Liberty International Airport. On Tuesday evening, the left wing of an outbound Lufthansa AG jetliner, a Boeing 747 carrying more than 300 people, bumped the right wing of an empty Continental Airlines Boeing 757, said Alan Hicks, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Continental plane was being towed to a parking spot, but it was stationary at the time, said Continental Airlines Inc. spokeswoman Mary Clark. There was no immediate report on the extent of damage to either aircraft. Three days earlier, a Continental flight from Florida carrying more than 160 passengers had landed on a narrow taxiway close to airport buildings rather than the runway where it was expected to land. No one was injured. Continental said both pilots were grounded. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the taxiway landing, said Northeast region duty officer Todd Gunther. If Tuesday's ground collision caused substantial damage, the NTSB may also investigate that incident, he said. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the collision, spokesman Jim Peters said. None of the Lufthansa flight's 294 passengers or 17 crew members was injured, said Lufthansa AG spokeswoman Jennifer Urbaniak. The plane had been bound for Frankfurt, Germany, but was towed back to the gate and passengers were rebooked on other flights, Urbaniak said. There have been at least two other ground collisions in the last 20 months at Newark, according to NTSB records. In March 2005, a Boeing 737 struck a parked Gulfstream as it taxied out of a ramp area, causing significant damage to the smaller aircraft. Five months later, a taxiing Continental Boeing 737 struck two parked Embraer 145 planes as they waited to take off, causing significant damage to one of the smaller planes.
