Alaska Airlines Plane Collides With Truck In Boston Airport

On Monday afternoon, Alaska Airlines Flight 33 on route to Portland, Oregon, collided with a de-icing truck at Logan International Airport in Boston. The airplane, reportedly carrying 166 passengers, was on the taxiway preparing for take-off when it collided with the truck, officials said.

According to the statement issued by the airlines, no injuries were sustained by the passengers on the plane. Massport officials said at the time of collision no person was present in the de-icing truck, Boston globe reported.

Following the incident, the plane's left wing sustained minor damage. The plane was sent back to the gate for inspection. A passenger from Portland, Rick Gencarelli, said the collision felt like the plane ran over a speed bump on the runway, WCBV, a local Boston news channel, reported.

"Not a big deal, a little bump, But a little bump turned into a big inconvenience," he added.

According to the report, after being deplaned, the passengers were stranded for two hours in the terminal before the airline started rebooking customers and helping them find hotels in the vicinity. The airlines gave the passengers food vouchers and lodging credit and re-accommodated to other flight in the West Coast.

In the statement, the airlines aplogized for the inconvenience caused to the customers on-board Flight 33. It stressed that the safety of their customers was its number one priority.

The statement said, “We apologize to our guests who have been inconvenienced this afternoon on AS Flight 33. The safety of our guests and our employees is our number one priority. We’re investigating what happened. There were 166 passengers on the flight. They are being re-accommodated on other flights to the West Coast."

This isn't the first transgression reported by the Alaska Airlines. The news comes in wake of a rodent incident that occurred earlier this month on-board Alaska Airlines Flight 915 at Oakland International Airport, which led to the cancellation of the Portland bound flight.

The minor incident is a far cry from the incident that claimed the life of 88 passengers and crew on Jan. 31, 2000. Alaska Airlines Flight 261 was travelling from Mexico to San Francisco and later to Seattle when the plane plunged into the Pacific Ocean in southern California. In December 2002, the National Transport Safety Board determined that the crash could have been averted if it hadn’t been for an oversight in the maintenance of the plane.

The statement released by the NTSB said, “Alaska Airlines flight 261 accident was the loss of airplane pitch control resulting from in-flight failure of the horizontal stabilizer trim system jackscrew assembly's acme nut thread. The component failed because of excessive wear resulting from Alaska Airlines' insufficient lubrication of the jackscrew assembly.”