After a chaotic day for flights in the U.S. on Nov. 13, 2026, two aircraft struck each other while taxiing at Miami International Airport (MIA) at 21:15 local time on Nov. 14, 2026. A Copa Airlines (CM) Boeing 737 and a UPS Cargo (5X) Boeing 767 were involved in this incident. Two passengers onboard the Copa flight suffered minor injuries and neither needed hospitalisation.
Details about the collision
Copa Airlines 427 had just landed from Panama City (PTY) with 166 passengers and six crew members onboard. UPS Cargo 358 was taxiing for its departure bound to Bogotá (BOG), Colombia. The left wingtip of the Copa Boeing 737 struck the nose of the UPS Boeing 767, CNN reported. Air traffic control (ATC) audio circulating after the incident indicates that the crew of the UPS flight had been instructed to give way to the inbound Copa Airlines flight.
“Somebody hit us,” the Copa pilot said in the recording, as the controller asked the UPS crew to check if they had made contact. “Yeah, we went too far, and then he, he clipped us with the wing,” the UPS pilot said. “It seems that we are missing the left wingtip,” the Copa pilot said later.
One of the Copa passenger, Cesar Ferreira reported to CNN:
“We were taxiing after landing at a normal speed when, all of a sudden, I heard the chatter around me getting louder, followed by a collective scream and then the impact of another aircraft hitting ours. Inside the cabin, we felt the plane jerk abruptly sideways. At first, some passengers started freaking out, but the Copa crew reacted quickly, getting everyone to remain seated. After about 10 minutes, the captain announced that there was no imminent danger and a tug is on its way to move the plane to the terminal.”
Greg Chin, communications manager at Miami International Airport, said the injured passengers were treated at the scene.
Airlines statements and the ground stop
UPS issued a statement that the onboard crew were safe and said that it would comply and work with the authorities to establish what went wrong. Copa Airlines said onboard crew and passenger safety will remain its top priority and that it will cooperate with the regulators for further investigation. The mishap happened as airports and airlines across the United States were still recovering from a nationwide ground stop the day before. The nationwide outage, which lasted approximately four hours, has been attributed to technical issues with air traffic control equipment.
Were you caught up in the ground stop or the disruption in Miami? Let us know in the comments.
