Delta planes collide at Salt Lake City airport in stupid accident

We see planes collide with each other on the ground from time to time. Well, I guess it’s better for it to happen on the ground than in the air. Here’s the latest example, although this incident seems particularly avoidable…

Delta planes collide on SLC taxiway

This incident occurred on the evening of Saturday, July 27, 2024. Long story short, three Delta jets were waiting to take off before runway 16L:

The first aircraft waiting to take off was a Delta Airbus A220-100, operating as flight DL1304 to Orange County (SNA)
The second aircraft waiting to take off was a Delta Airbus A320, operating as flight DL2677 to Dallas (DFW).
The third aircraft waiting to take off was a Delta Boeing 737-900ER, operating as flight DL2046 to Bozeman (BZN)

As these planes waited to take off, the wind conditions were not ideal. Planes typically take off into the wind, but in this case, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, so they had a tailwind. So the pilot of the first Delta jet informed air traffic control that he would need a minute to analyze the takeoff performance:

Delta 1304 Pilot: “Right now, for the Delta 1304, we have four knots too much tailwind. We are doing calculations, so stay tuned.”

At this point, the pilot of the third Delta jet indicates that they would be ready to go immediately and could take off from an intersection:

Delta 2046 Pilot: “Tower, Delta 2046, we have a number for a departure from Hotel 12 if possible.”
Air Traffic Controller: “Delta 2046 is good…and you have access now?”
Delta 2046 Pilot: “We can go in, Delta 2046.”

Famous last words, because it turned out there wasn’t enough room for the plane to “get in there.” As the Delta 737 made a right turn onto a taxiway to reach the runway, the winglet struck the tail of the Delta Airbus A320 in front of it.

As expected, the issue of continuing the flight was quite complicated, as it was difficult to assess the damage at first. Two of Delta’s flights ended up returning to the gate and had to be canceled. This is not ideal, as I imagine some passengers on that flight had probably already been stranded for several days, given Delta’s outage.

Meanwhile, Delta’s first flight was delayed even longer for a reason unrelated to the incident: the runway direction had to be changed due to increased winds.

VASAviation has an excellent reconstruction of this incident, which you can watch below.

This is an extremely preventable accident.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, ground collisions happen quite frequently. However, in the vast majority of situations, they occur when aircraft are backing up or taxiing on very narrow aprons. This often happens while aircraft are being pushed back, and sometimes the “wing walkers” simply aren’t paying enough attention.

It is rare, however, to see a situation like this, where the aircraft is under the full control of the pilots and they are on an open taxiway. The air traffic controller specifically asked if they would have enough room to enter the taxiway, the pilot confirmed that they would be able to do so and they did.

Pilots are always expected to exercise caution. If the captain had any doubt that there would not be enough space for the other aircraft to pass, he obviously should not have made the request (or accepted the clearance).

Did the captain have poor depth perception, a case of “go for it” or what? Delta captains are the highest paid in the business, so they shouldn’t be maneuvering like they’re a Dodge Charger driver in Miami…

I’m curious, does anyone know what typically happens to pilots in these situations, when they do something like this that is clearly a pilot error? Do they just get a little more sim time, or are there bigger repercussions?

In conclusion

Two Delta planes collided on a taxiway at Salt Lake City Airport. Specifically, the pilots of one of the two Delta planes thought they could maneuver to get next to another Delta plane to get a quicker takeoff clearance, but it didn’t quite work out, as both planes were damaged and both flights were canceled.

What do you think about this collision between two Delta planes?