2 jets in 'minor incident' on JFK tarmac

Two jetliners were involved in a "minor incident" on the tarmac of Kennedy Airport Sunday night, Port Authority officials said.

A Delta Air Lines spokeswoman said its Delta Connection Flight 6087, flown by Chautauqua Airlines, carrying 44 passengers from Charleston, S.C., was involved in the incident. A Port Authority spokeswoman, Erica Dumas, said the other jet was Royal Jordanian Airlines Flight 261, carrying 159 passengers from Amman, Jordan.

There were no injuries reported, and all the passengers were safely removed from the planes, Dumas said.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the agency was waiting on an "assessment" to see if the damage to both planes is "substantial enough" to require an investigation. He said the decision would likely be made today.

Port Authority officials declined to provide exact details about the accident and how it was caused, referring those questions to the airlines.

A call to Royal Jordanian was not immediately returned last night. Delta spokeswoman Kate Modolo declined to provide details of the accident.

A similar accident occurred in May 2012 between two Delta jetliners at Kennedy Airport. The wingtip of one Delta Boeing 767 being towed between terminals clipped the other plane's horizontal stabilizer.

Both planes received minor damage, and one flight was delayed a couple of hours, but no one was injured.

And in April 2011, an Air France Airbus A380 super jumbo jet clipped a Delta regional jet on the tarmac at Kennedy Airport.

The A380 was carrying 485 passengers and 25 crew members, and none were injured. The Comair/Delta Bombardier CRJ 701 was carrying 62 passengers and four crew members, and none were injured. Both the Airbus and the CRJ sustained substantial damage, the National Transportation Safety Board found.