Japan: Cathay Pacific and Korean Air planes ‘collide’ on airport runway

In what seems to be addition to airplane related incidents in recent days, a Korean Air airplane struck a stationary Cathay Pacific plane at an airport in Japan. The planes 'came into contact' with each other while taxiing at the airport. Both airlines have confirmed the incident.

The fresh incident took place at New Chitose Airport which serves Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido.

"Our aircraft, which was stationary at the time with no customers nor crew onboard, was struck by a Korean Air A330 which was taxiing past," said Cathay Pacific in a statement.

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Korean Air also issued a statement.

"A Korean Air aircraft came into contact with a Cathay aircraft during pushback at New Chitose (Sapporo) Airport when the third-party ground handler vehicle slipped due to heavy snow. There were no injuries and the airline is cooperating with all relevant authorities," said the airline.

As per Japan's public broadcaster NHK, the operator of the airport received information about the incident around 5:30 PM (0830 GMT).

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There was no information from either of the carriers about the extent of damage sustained by both airplanes.

Cathay Pacific however, said that its "flight CX583 from Sapporo to Hong Kong will not operate as scheduled."

As reported by Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting, firefighters were kept on standby at New Chitose Airport after the collision between the two planes but there reportedly was no oil leak or any fire.

Hokkaido is currently witnessing extreme cold with several cities in the region experiencing snowfall. Media reports say that 46 flights were cancelled on Tuesday alone due to heavy snowfall.

Rules tightened

The aviation authorities in Japan are in alert mode after casualties on January 2 when a Japan Airlines plane struck a smaller coast guard plane at an airport in Haneda. While all 379 passengers on board the Japan Airlines plane escaped unhurt, five people in the smaller plane died. The Japan Airlines plane caught fire.

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The Japanese government tightened air traffic control protocols last week after January 2 incident.

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The new nationwide rules mandate that a staff member should be constantly monitoring a system which alerts ATC when runway incursions take place.

(With inputs from agencies)