Korean Air plane ‘strikes’ Cathay aircraft in Japan

TOKYO: A Korean Air airliner “struck” an empty Cathay Pacific plane while taxiing at a snow-hit Japanese airport on Tuesday, with both airlines saying there were no injuries.

The incident at New Chitose Airport serving the northern Japanese city of Sapporo, came two weeks after a nearcatastrophic collision at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport between a Japan Airlines aircraft and a smaller coast guard plane.

“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,” Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific said in a statement.

Korean Air also confirmed there were no injuries among the 276 passengers and 13 crew on board its Airbus A330-300 that had been set to depart for Seoul’s main airport Incheon from New Chitose on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

The airline said its plane “came into contact” with the Cathay aircraft at 5.35pm Japanese time (0835 GMT) “during pushback ... 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,” the carrier said.

A spokesman of the airport operator confirmed the “contact” of the two planes to AFP, but did not give further details including the cause of the accident.

Neither airline gave information on the amount of damage done but both said that their passengers needed to be placed on other planes.

Footage from public broadcaster NHK showed a snow-covered Korean Air plane with damage to its wing.

NHK said the wing tip was broken off and that the rear section of Cathay’s aircraft was damaged. Airport firefighters were on standby following the accident.