A Delta Air Lines jet bound for Tokyo shuddered as it taxied for departure at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, when its left wingtip clipped the tail of an Air Canada Boeing 777 being towed nearby. The LAX wingtip collision left a piece of aircraft debris lodged in the Air Canada jet’s tail, officials said, and both planes were pulled from service.
The collision happened around 10:30 a.m. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Delta Flight 7, an Airbus A350 carrying 275 passengers and 15 crew members, was rolling toward the runway for a flight to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport when its wingtip struck the horizontal stabilizer of Air Canada Flight 785, a Boeing 777 that had just arrived from Toronto and was being towed toward its gate, FAA spokesperson Donnell Evans told USA Today.
One passenger aboard the Delta jet told ABC7’s Eyewitness News the aircraft was pulling away from the gate when the Air Canada plane appeared to move into its path. No injuries were reported, and it was not immediately confirmed whether passengers were aboard the Air Canada jet at the time of contact.
“While taxiing at Los Angeles International Airport, a Delta aircraft made contact with an Air Canada aircraft,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement. “Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, and we apologize to our customers for the experience and delay in their travels.”
Air Canada spokesperson Sean Davidson confirmed Flight 785 “will be taken out of service for inspection and repairs” after the contact.
What the LAX wingtip collision left behind
What sets this collision apart from a routine taxiway fender-bender is what it left behind. According to ABC7, a piece of the Delta plane’s wing — the curved winglet — appeared to be lodged inside the Air Canada jet’s horizontal stabilizer, the tail section that controls pitch; the winglet was torn off in the impact and remained stuck there. CNN reported the same detail, noting photos circulated on social media showed visible damage to both the Delta wingtip and the Air Canada tail.
That transforms what began as a ground collision into a foreign object debris event: a structural fragment broke free from one aircraft and embedded itself in another, rather than falling to the pavement. Consequently, both planes were pulled from service for inspection, a standard precaution whenever structural damage or debris contact is suspected before an aircraft returns to passenger service.
The FAA is investigating the incident, while the National Transportation Safety Board has been notified, officials said. LAX told USA Today the incident occurred “on a taxiway, not a runway,” and that operations at the airport continued normally. The FAA’s advisory circular on FOD management, AC 150/5210-24, sets the industry’s baseline expectations for inspecting airport movement areas for debris, though no agency has publicly detailed a specific taxiway sweep tied to this incident.
Ground collisions between taxiing, towed or parked aircraft remain one of the more common sources of costly airframe damage industry-wide, even when they don’t cause injuries. This incident is a reminder that debris risk isn’t limited to loose hardware or tire fragments on the pavement — a wingtip or winglet itself can become the flying object that damages a second aircraft.
FODNews previously covered a related ground-contact incident in which a Turkish Airlines Boeing 777 struck a radar mast on the apron at Antalya, sending debris into the fuselage.
Delta said its A350 was also undergoing inspection by airline maintenance crews following the collision. Neither carrier has released a timeline for returning the aircraft to service.
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Sources
- ABC7 Los Angeles — “A Delta plane reportedly had a minor collision with an Air Canada plane on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport Tuesday morning” (Oct. 7, 2026)
- USA Today — “Delta and Air Canada planes collide at LAX taxiway” (Oct. 6, 2026)
- CNN — “FAA investigating after Delta plane hits an Air Canada jet at LAX” (Oct. 6, 2026)
- La Presse — “Un avion de Delta aurait effleuré un appareil d’Air Canada” (Oct. 6, 2026)
