Spirit Airlines A320 hits US Airways plane

2012 ended for 162 passengers on a Spirit Airlines plane with an unexpected bump.

Their Airbus A320 had just arrived from Atlanta at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida Monday night when a wingtip hit the tail of another plane.

“After landing and while taxiing to the gate, our aircraft made contact with another parked aircraft,” Spirit spokeswoman Misty Pinson confirmed. “There were no injuries and customers deplaned at the gate as normal.”

The US Airways plane that was hit was parked in a remote area away from the gate where aircraft are stored overnight. No one was on board at the time.

“An A320 was parked in an approved parking spot when it was struck in the tail by another aircraft,” Andrew Christie, a US Airways spokesman said. “The extent of the damage is yet to be determined.”

Broward County sheriff’s officers who were called to the scene described the damage as a “gash in the tail section,” but found no fuel leaking.

The Spirit aircraft has resumed flying, while the US Airways plane is out of service for inspection and repair of its damaged tail cone, the airlines reported.

In September the National Transportation Safety Board recommended the Federal Aviation Administration require large planes and other aircraft on which the wingtips are not easily visible from the cockpit to have cameras or other devices to monitor the wings.

The safety board said at the time that 12 accidents since 1993 had involved a large aircraft’s wingtip hitting another airplane or object on the taxiway.

Most recently, a Boeing 747 hit a regional jet at O’Hare airport in Chicago in May, a 767 hit a regional jet in Boston in July 2011 and an A380 hit a regional jet in April of 2011 at New York’s JFK airport.

No one was injured in any of those recent collisions.