JetBlue plane damaged by 'runaway' van in Boston
A JetBlue plane was damaged in Boston Friday morning when it was struck by a fuel van. No passengers were injured.
The Boston Herald writes the “runaway” van began rolling while its driver was outside the vehicle around 6 a.m. ET. The van struck a JetBlue Embraer E190 that was about push back from the gate for Flight 891 to Tampa.
Flight 891 passenger Chaz Hallock tells the Herald the impact was subtle, but noticeable.
“It sort of rocked to one side,” Hallock says about the aircraft at the moment it was hit by the van. “I looked out the window and I saw a white van sort of driving aimlessly and some people chasing after it. There was one person on the ground and it was heading to another plane.”
Quick action by ground crew may have kept the vehicle from striking other aircraft, according to eyewitness accounts.
“The baggage crew working the flight worked fast to stop the truck from rolling further and causing any more damage,” David Siles – another Flight 891 passenger – says to WBZ-TV of Boston.
The Massachusetts State Police tell Boston.com the van’s driver apparently did not put the van in park when he stepped out. The man tried to jump back into the van once he noticed it had begun to roll, but he fell and was unable to stop it.
“The van struck the wing of the JetBlue aircraft, causing damage to the aircraft and the van,” the Massachusetts State Police add in the statement to Boston.com.
“It was all very surreal,” passenger Hallock says to the Herald. “But nobody on the plane was too spooked about it.”
JetBlue confirmed one of its planes was struck by a van, saying it put Flight 891 passengers on a new aircraft for their trip to Tampa.
“Shortly before 6 a.m. a ground operations vehicle came into contact with the aircraft operating JetBlue flight #891 at Logan International Airport while it was parked at the gate,” JetBlue spokesman Philip Stewart says in a statement to Today in the Sky. “The aircraft is being inspected for damage, and customers on the flight from Boston to Tampa were accommodated on a different aircraft."
Flight 891 departed on the new aircraft around 7:15 a.m. ET, or about 75 minutes behind schedule, according to JetBlue’s website.
Boston's Logan International Airport also confirmed the incident, saying via Twitter that "the cause of the incident remains under investigation."