According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), around 1 pm Thursday afternoon, a FedEx plane ran into another aircraft while taxiing for take off to Lihue at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
“Our plane was waiting to take off, holding short on taxiway Charlie, and another plane hit them from behind,” said George Hanzawa, the owner of George’s Aviation Services, who owns the plane that got hit.
Hanzawa said his plane was hit in the tail.
“We’re very, very fortunate that there were no injuries, and very, very minor damage to the airplane,” Hanzawa explained.
FedEx released the following statement:
“FedEx Flight 8974, a feeder aircraft en route from Honolulu to Lihue, Hawaii, was involved in an incident with a small Cessna aircraft this afternoon while taxiing for takeoff. We are grateful no one was hurt. Maintenance is evaluating our aircraft, and we are fully cooperating with investigating authorities.”
A local aviation expert, Peter Forman, said the incident was likely similar to a car accident.
“Sometimes when an airplane is heavily loaded and the nose is a little bit high, it can be a little bit harder to see over the nose. So the pilot has to be particularly careful when he’s taxiing,” Forman said.
Hanzawa said he doesn’t hold anything against the other pilot because accidents can happen.
“We cannot push blame or whatever as far as what happened. He could of had a brake failure or something. We got no idea, so it is what it is. We’ll just go ahead and repair the damage,” Hanzawa said.
The FAA is now investigating.
