An American Airlines Boeing 777 that was in the process of pushback from its gate collided with the tail of a Frontier Airbus A321neo in Miami Thursday night, prompting more questions about the root cause in a pattern of high-profile safety incidents in the aviation industry.
Video of the ground crew running to try and stop a full-on collision and prevent further damage to the planes has been posted to social media, along with photos of the damage to the tails of both aircraft.
American Airlines acknowledged the collision in a statement.
“Customers deplaned normally, and the aircraft was taken out of service to be inspected by our maintenance team,” per Aviation Source News. “We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience this caused.”
“Only crew members were on board the Frontier aircraft at the time and no injuries have been reported,” Frontier Airlines said in a statement.
Near-collision close calls and structural failures have plagued the aviation industry in recent years. On Monday, a United Airlines Boeing 737 laden with passengers was forced to make an emergency landing after one of its engines caught fire.
Some commenters have noted that these aviation safety mishaps, some of which have narrowly avoided becoming deadly disasters, coincide with an industry emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) measures.
A social media user by the name of Todd Snyder claimed, “#Boeing uses less qualified workers due to #DEI a practice that is going to KILL somebody!”
American Airlines’ company profile website prominently features DEI and ESG under its “Social Responsibility” tab. Social Responsibility is the only substantive category on the home page. In contrast, categories that would denote the airline’s fleet safety record or prioritization of quality of service and safety are conspicuously absent.
Earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), overseen by former college town mayor turned Secretary of the Transportation Department Pete Buttigieg, announced a new “Diversity and Inclusion” program to hire those with “severe intellectual disability” and “psychiatric disability.”
According to the FAA’s website, the program aims to “ensure that people with disabilities have equal Federal employment opportunities. The FAA actively recruits, hires, promotes, retains, develops, and advances people with disabilities.”
Last year, a near miss occurred in Austin when a FedEx plane almost collided with a Southwest passenger airliner that was given clearance to take off on the same runway by an air traffic controller. Audio from the incident indicates that the air traffic controller — whose hiring and oversight was done by the FAA — was slow to realize the danger, leaving the pilots to take action on their own to avoid disaster.
