A Delta Air Lines jet bound for Tokyo clipped a parked Air Canada plane on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport Tuesday morning, sending the aircraft out of service for inspection and repairs while Delta crews assessed their jet and airport officials sorted out exactly what went wrong. No injuries were reported among the 275 passengers and 15 crew aboard the Delta flight, though the collision briefly rattled nerves on two planes carrying hundreds of travelers.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the incident happened at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, when Delta Flight 7 — an Airbus A350 taxiing for departure to Tokyo — clipped the horizontal stabilizer of Air Canada Flight AC785, a Boeing 777 that was being towed to its gate after arriving from Toronto and had stopped short, according to CP24. Delta confirmed the passenger and crew totals aboard Flight 7, and both airlines confirmed no injuries were reported. Air Canada took its aircraft out of service for inspection and repairs, while Delta said its crews would assess its aircraft, the outlet reported.
The New York Post reported that the Delta plane's wingtip clipped the horizontal stabilizer of the Air Canada aircraft.
A Condominium-Sized Scare From a Nearby Gate
Jayson Lowe, CEO of Ascendant Financial Inc., was aboard a different flight that had just landed at LAX when the collision happened, taxiing to his own arrival gate, per the Post's account. Lowe said a Delta A350 hit a parked Air Canada plane as he watched from his own aircraft, and described the object looming near the Delta jet's cockpit as roughly the size of a condominium building with wings.
Aviation tracking records identified the Delta aircraft involved as registration N512DN, an Airbus A350-900, while the Air Canada jet was identified as a Boeing 777-200LR, according to Cedar News.
Part of a Troubling National Pattern
Tuesday's clipped wingtip adds to a worrying trend tracked by federal regulators. Severe Category A and B runway incursions across U.S. airports rose 44% in 2025, even as total surface incursions dipped slightly, according to data published by AVweb.
Staffing shortages in the nation's control towers have compounded the risk. A nationwide air traffic control staffing review found more than 118 of 290 FAA terminal facilities operating below 85% staffing thresholds as of late 2024, with the controller union estimating a national deficit of 3,800 certified controllers, according to FODNews.com.
LAX's Long History With Ground Collisions
A Previous LAX Ground Collision In February 2023, an American Airlines plane being towed along an LAX taxiway collided with an airport shuttle bus, injuring five people, as previously reported by KXXV.
LAX operates across 3,500 acres with 161 active passenger contact gates spread across nine terminals within a tightly constrained, U-shaped central footprint. Simple Flying notes that the airport's footprint requires high gate-turn rates and precise ground coordination.
Whether air traffic control issued explicit hold-short commands to the tow crew moving the Air Canada jet, and whether nonstandard taxiway geometry contributed to Tuesday's contact, remain open questions that investigators have not yet answered. The cost and downtime required to repair the damaged wingtip and horizontal stabilizer also had not been disclosed as both jets sat grounded for inspection.
