London/Frankfurt - A Lufthansa Airbus and a Boeing 737 run by a British holiday operator were involved in a "wingtip collision" at Manchester airport Tuesday, causing damage but no injuries, a spokesman said. The two aircraft with a total of 287 passengers on board were taxiing out to the runway of the airport in northern England when the accident happened soon after 1230 GMT Tuesday. The planes were due to take off with a five-minute interval.
One of the planes was a Lufthansa Airbus A320 bound for Frankfurt, Germany, with 107 passengers on board. The other was a Boeing 737 of Britain's Futura airline, due to take off for Tenerife with 180 passengers.
Reports said the collision, at a speed of 16-kilometres per hour, "sliced off" the wingtip of the Futura plane and caused considerable damage to the underbelly of the Lufthansa plane.
"Our flight LH4853 was parked with the brake on when another aircraft came by and just touched the tip of the wing," said a spokeswoman for Lufthansa in Frankfurt.
"No-one was hurt and all the passengers are now safely back in the terminal building. We are hoping to be able to fly them all on to Germany today if possible," she said.
The airport in northern England remained fully operational and there were no delays as a result of the accident, airport spokesman Russell King said.
"The passengers on board would have felt some kind of bump but it hasn't caused any serious structural damage to the aircraft," he said.
The planes had been checked over by the fire services and would be examined by experts to assess the damage.
The incident will also be examined by a team from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, Britain's Transport Ministry said.
