'Serious' damage as planes clip wings in Toronto

A Canadian and a Polish passenger jet clipped wings on the ground at a Toronto airport, causing “serious” damage but no casualties, a spokesman for Air Canada confirmed Sunday.

The Polish plane, operated by the LOT airline, was on the tarmac at Pearson International Airport late Saturday when it was struck by an Air Canada plane that was taxiing toward a nearby landing gate, Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the Canadian company, said in an email.

The Air Canada craft, a Boeing 767-300, was carrying 286 passengers from Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

Authorities are investigating the incident.

Chris Krepski, a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, told public network CBC that preliminary information indicated that the Air Canada plane had struck the LOT plane as the Polish aircraft was preparing for take-off.

An Air Canada Airbus A320 was involved in a potentially catastrophic incident in July at San Francisco International Airport in California, when it came perilously close to landing on a taxiway where several planes were lined up for take-off.

Air controllers urgently redirected the plane and it landed normally.