Russian plane hits Italian plane at Split airport, no casualties

A Russian passenger plane on Sunday morning hit with its wing, while arriving at the platform of Split airport, the tail of an Italian passenger plane and ripped off a part of its tail stabiliser, but there were no casualties, the Croatian Transport Ministry said in a statement.

The Tupolev TU-204 of the Russian Mineralnye Vody airline, carrying 180 passengers and a crew of 10, hit with its wing and ripped off a part of the horizontal tail stabiliser of the Airbus 320 plane, owned by the Italian Wind Jet airline.

The Italian plane will stay in Split until its tail stabiliser is replaced, and the Russian plane will leave for the Moscow airport of Vnukovo as soon as it gets clearance from Russian and Croatian aviation authorities.

The Tupolev landed at Split airport at 8.48 am as the Italian plane was preparing to leave for Palermo at 9.10 am. At the time of the accident, there were 93 passengers and six crew members aboard the Italian plane.

A Croatian aviation accident expert is expected to investigate the accident.

Hina