Plane carrying 6 members of Congress is clipped at Reagan Airport

Two American Airlines jets, including one carrying at least six members of Congress from New York and New Jersey, clipped wings on a taxiway at Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington on Thursday, officials said. There were no injuries, according to American Airlines, which said that the damage was limited to the winglets of the two planes and that both jets had been taken out of service for inspection. The six House members were departing for Kennedy International Airport when the right winglet of their Embraer E175, which was stationary, was clipped by a regional jet heading to Charleston, S.C., officials said. “I’ve been flying for over 10 years to Washington,” Representative Grace Meng, Democrat of New York, said during a Zoom call with reporters while waiting for another flight. “This has never happened to me.” Meng, whose district is in Queens, identified the other House members who were aboard the flight as Gregory Meeks, Ritchie Torres, Adriano Espaillat, all Democrats from New York; Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey; and Nick LaLota, a Long Island Republican. Meng said that she was sitting on the other side of the plane from where the wings clipped. “We suddenly felt some shaking,” she said, recalling that some passengers across the aisle had noticed “a little piece fell off” the wing. She said she passed out grapes while the jet waited on the tarmac. The crew handed out water and snacks to the passengers, she said. The episode brought further scrutiny to safety procedures at the Reagan Airport, where an American Airlines regional jet making its final approach was struck by an Army helicopter on Jan. 29, killing all 67 people aboard the two aircraft. That crash was the deadliest in the United States in 20 years.<br/>