JetBlue plane hits unoccupied jet at JFK Airport

A JetBlue flight to San Juan struck the tail of an unoccupied parked JetBlue aircraft on pushback from the departure gate Wednesday morning at Kennedy Airport, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

It was not immediately clear how many passengers and crew were aboard the departing aircraft, though the FAA and JetBlue said there were no reported injuries in the incident, which is now under investigation.

The incident involved JetBlue Flight 1603, originally scheduled to depart Kennedy at 6:01 a.m. The FAA said both aircraft were Airbus A320.

In a statement Wednesday, JetBlue said Flight 1603 "came into light contact with a parked unoccupied aircraft during pushback" and said the departing plane then returned to the gate, with the flight assigned to another aircraft. "Safety is JetBlue's first priority, and both aircraft involved will be taken out of service for inspection and the incident will be investigated," the statement read.

The JetBlue online flight tracker shows that Flight 1603 later operated as an Airbus A321 that departed Kennedy at 7:50 a.m. — and is now scheduled to arrive at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Carolina, Puerto Rico, just outside San Juan, at 12:28 p.m.

Additional information was not immediately available.

The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board are already investigating another recent incident involving a departing flight in a near-collision at Kennedy. Officials said that incident occurred Friday and involved an American Airlines Boeing 777 crossing an active runway, resulting in an air traffic controller using an on-air expletive to direct a Delta Air Lines Boeing 737 with 145 passengers and six crew to stop its takeoff roll mid-departure.

No one was injured in the incident, but the FAA said this week that initial indications were the Delta flight came to a stop about 1,000 feet from where the American flight crossed the active runway.

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”