Two Delta Planes Collide at LaGuardia Airport

Two packed Delta jets “absolutely smashed” into each other on the runway at LaGuardia Airport Wednesday night, according to authorities and terrified passengers — destroying a plane’s nose and ripping off a large part of a wing.

The saga unfolded when the wing of an aircraft carrying 32 people that was departing for Roanoke, Virginia, suddenly collided with the fuselage of an aircraft arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina, with 61 people aboard just before 10 p.m., Delta said in a statement.

“Their right wing clipped our nose and the cockpit. We have damage to our windscreen and… some of our screens in here,” one pilot could be heard saying in air traffic control audio.

Photos from the scene showed one of the plane’s windshields completely shattered and its nose banged up in the wake of the collision.

A huge part of a jet’s wing was also torn off.

“We got absolutely smashed by another Delta flight. I don’t know if we hit them or they hit us, but it was super jarring,” CBS News producer Joey Annunziato, a passenger on the flight from Charlotte, said in a video recorded from his seat just moments after impact.

“Everyone shot forward in their seats and it was kind of a little chaotic as soon as it happened. We were shocked at what happened.”

Annunziato added that his plane was moving at a “decent clip” when the collision unfolded.

Another passenger, William Lusk, told ABC that his plane suddenly “stopped, jerked, and jumped to the right” just after it landed.

”Everyone went dead silent. And as everyone went dead silent, the pilot calmly came on and said, ‘Hey, we’ve been in a crash, everyone remain calm’,” he told the outlet.

Despite the damage to the jets, miraculously, no passengers were injured during the collision, the airline said.

A flight attendant on board one of the aircraft suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital in the wake of the saga, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Photos and videos posted to social media captured emergency vehicles rushing toward the two regional jets, operated by Endeavor Air, in the immediate aftermath.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the mishap, which unfolded within the first 24 hours of the government shutdown that has upended federal services.

Prior to the shutdown, airlines had warned that the shutdown could strain US aviation and potentially slow flights given Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers would be among those workers forced to work without pay.

It wasn’t clear if staffing levels at LaGuardia were impacted at the time of Wednesday’s collision.

The Port Authority said LaGuardia’s airport operations weren’t impacted by the collision.

Meanwhile, Delta vowed to work with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board to probe the incident.

“Delta teams at our New York-LaGuardia hub are working to ensure our customers are taken care of after two Delta Connection aircraft operated by Endeavor Air were involved in a low-speed collision during taxi,” the airline said in a statement.

“Delta will work with all relevant authorities to review what occurred as the safety of our customers and people comes before all else. We apologize to our customers for the experience.”