Six members of Congress, including two from the Bronx, were aboard a New York-bound plane on a taxiway in Washington, D.C., when it was clipped by another aircraft, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
U.S. Reps. Ritchie Torres and Adriano Espaillat were among those on American Airlines Flight 4522, which was preparing for departure to JFK Airport from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport around 12:45 p.m. when it was struck by the wingtip of another plane headed to Charleston International Airport in South Carolina, the FAA said.
The other lawmakers on board included Reps. Grace Meng and Gregory Meeks of Queens, Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, and Nick LaLota of Long Island. They were returning to New York at the start of the two-week Easter and Passover congressional recess.
The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority confirmed that no one was injured in the incident.
The collision occurred near the site of a Jan. 29 crash that killed 67 people.
Torres posted about the incident on X, assuring constituents that he would be back in the Boogie Down soon.
“I was just on a grounded plane that was struck by another aircraft,” Torres said in the social media post. “Thankfully, no one was injured—just the inconvenience of a delayed departure. The Bronx: I’m coming home… eventually!”
The collision comes after hundreds of Federal Aviation Administration employees were fired in February during the Trump administration’s purge of probationary employees through the Department of Governmental Efficiency, led by Elon Musk.
Espaillat, in a post following the near miss, criticized the president for the cuts to the workforce.
“Aviation mishaps are at an all-time high, and the Trump administration’s reckless decision to fire FAA control staff has put us all in danger,” Espaillat said in a post on X. “We are thankful that no one was injured and that a catastrophe was avoided.”
Torres told the Bronx Times in a statement that the shrinking of the federal workforce will impact everyday Americans.
“The Trump administration’s systematic decimation of the FAA is not an abstraction,” Torres said. “It has real-world consequences for aviation safety.”
