Delta Regional Jets Collide On LaGuardia Taxiway, Causing Major Damage

While we occasionally see aircraft have incidents on the ground, this has to be one of the worse ones we’ve seen in quite some time (perhaps since a Delta A350 sliced the tail off a Delta Connection CRJ-900). I first covered this yesterday, but want to provide an update, as we now have the ATC audio of the incident, which provides a bit of clarity regarding what happened.

Two Delta Connection CRJ-900s have LaGuardia accident

Shortly before 10PM on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, we saw a pretty wild accident at New York LaGuardia Airport. It involves two Delta Connection aircraft, both of which are Bombardier CRJ-900s operated by Endeavor Air, Delta’s wholly owned regional subsidiary.

Specifically, it involves flight DL5155, which was taxiing for departure, bound for Roanoke, Virginia (ROA), and flight DL5047, which was taxiing after landing, arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina (CLT). Based on preliminary details, it appears that the wing of the departing aircraft made contact with the nose of the arriving aircraft.

VASAviation has a video with the air traffic control audio, combined with the movement of the aircraft:

• Endeavor 5047 was given clearance to taxi via B and M
• Endeavor 5155 was given permission to taxi via A and E, to hold short of 4, and “at M, to give way to company”

Those instructions were read back correctly, so one wonders where the confusion came from. DL5155 was supposed to give way to DL5047, but didn’t.

There were a total of 93 people onboard the two aircraft, and one flight attendant sustained minor injuries. One flight was carrying 61 people (57 passengers and four crew members), while the other flight was carrying 32 people (28 passengers and four crew members). As you’d expect, the departing flight was canceled.

Below is a video with a firsthand account of what happened, from someone on the arriving flight. Here’s what he described:

“It was a pretty violent collision. At the time, we didn’t really know like kind of what we hit. But it almost, what it sounded like was like a sardine can kind of opening. Like it was like something was being sheared off and, lo and behold, we looked at the right side of the plane, and the wing looked like it was almost like off the plane.”

In response to the incident, Delta has issued the following statement:

Delta teams at our New York-LaGuardia hub are working to ensure our customers are taken care of after two Delta Connection aircraft operated by Endeavor Air were involved in a low-speed collision during taxi. Delta will work with all relevant authorities to review what occurred as safety of our customers and people comes before all else. We apologize to our customers for the experience.

This is a puzzling accident… let’s see how this unfolds

There’s no denying that LaGuardia Airport has more than its fair share of incidents, given the amount of traffic the airport has, the extent to which it operates close to capacity, plus the small total size of the field. So whether it’s close calls on the runways or on the taxiways, it’s not surprising to see something like this happen at LaGuardia.

That being said, this incident is a mystery. Typically when we see a ground incident like this, two planes may just barely clip their wings. In this case, though… damn, this was quite the impact!

What makes this even stranger is that the instructions from the air traffic controller were pretty clear, and they were also read back correctly. So were the pilots of one of the planes just confused about which “company” plane they were supposed to give way to, or what?

What’s also noteworthy here is that this accident happened on intersecting taxiways, and the planes were headed toward one another. So you’d think this would’ve been obvious visually, but… apparently not?

Bottom line

Two Delta Connection regional jets had an accident at LaGuardia Airport, whereby the wing of one aircraft made contact with the nose of another aircraft. This wasn’t just some minor bump, but instead, we’re talking about some major damage, given how the wing and windshields look. Fortunately there was just one minor injury, but ugh, this must have been pretty rough.

What do you make of this Delta Connection incident at LaGuardia?