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).
In this post:
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.
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.
Let’s see what an investigation into the incident reveals
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 runway or on the taxiway, 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!
To state the obvious, stuff like this isn’t supposed to happen, so were the pilots of one of the flights not following the instructions they were given (or just weren’t aware of their surroundings), did air traffic controllers give wrong instructions, or what? What’s interesting here is that it looks like the two planes were on intersecting taxiways, so you’d think that something like this could’ve been avoided by being aware of surroundings, but…
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?
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Hopefully Scott Kirby will touch on all these DL ground incidents (and subsequent decline of a formerly “premium” airline) on his next UA quarterly results call.
Delta talks like they are a premium airline and they can't even hire pilots that can control their planes on the ground. Delta is getting worse. United has passed them. Southwest would have passed them if the Elliott changes never happened. American is gaining fast, especially with the latest AA press releases.
Delta now has two less planes in their fleet...
So Delta Whomever you are ….
Note the Airlines World Rankings 2025.
Delta 22
United 51
Southwest 76
American 83
You are invited to reconsider the content of your post, yes?
"To state the obvious" this happened on the first day of a federal government shutdown, when air traffic (and ground) controllers are being required to work without pay.
Still much more ahead
It seems we have had more ground incidents this year than in the past. Where are the improvements we've been premised?
* promised *
Removing humans from the controls?
There is no such thing as “Removing humans” bro, who do you think writes the programs for such “Controls”.
Please engage brain cell before attacking your keyboard, yes?
Some call it a collision, but others call it a Delta Connection.
This one should be easy to solve.
Either a bad instruction by ground or an error in following an instruction by the crew.
Side note...if Endeavor is looking to retire the CR9's and get E170/5's then totalling airframes is an odd way if going about it.
agree that the tapes should show what the ground controller said or didn't say but even if controllers were wrong, it is hard to understand how the pilots of the aircraft w/ the nose damage didn't see the other aircraft. We are talking about taxi speeds.
Plus Delta landing upside down at YYZ and it's been quite the year for the Delta. Glad no one was seriously hurt.
Inb4 all the comments about Delta and premium.
-- real Julie