Just over one year ago, a case of friendly fire saw a Delta Air Lines Airbus A350 strike an Endeavor Air CRJ-900 operating a Delta Connect flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL).
The damage could be described as catastrophic in the sense that it essentially chopped the tail off of the CRJ that fell into the path of the A350 wing like an axe to a log. In just a couple short week, an entirely new tail assembly has been reattached to the regional jet.
Just A Scratch: N302PQ Back In Action
The Bombardier jet that so dramatically had its tail felled by the huge A350 widebody is a 12-year-old jet registered as N302PQ. The plane has been in the service of Endeavor Air since it rolled off the assembly line in Montreal, Canada, as Planespotters.net records. Some believed it would be a total write-off given the extent of the damage and the age of the jet, like the comment section on one Reddit thread.
It’s not hard to see why that would be a plausible outcome, but the maintenance department at ATL worked some wonders and finally got the Delta Connect jet back on the flight line. It’s not surprising that N302PQ spent over a year in the hangar, given that that major structures were rebuilt. That’s good timing for Endeavor and Delta, as it’s just in time to help out with the 2025 holiday travel season.
The initial incident left the CRJ stranded on the tarmac as the larger Airbus taxied back to the terminal, but fortunately there were no injuries when the two planes collided. As an immediate ABC report covered after the accident, a Delta Air Lines spokesperson commented:
“Passengers from one of the aircraft are being bussed from the incident to the concourses.The second aircraft taxied under its own power to a concourse where passengers will deplane at their gate.”
Delta On Delta Violence
The Airbus A350 was operating as Delta Air Lines Flight 295 en route to Tokyo on the day of the incident. The widebody was taxiing for takeoff when its wing tip hit the tail of Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) operating as Endeavor Air Flight 5526. The CRJ-900 was headed to Louisiana before its tail was knocked off, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Delta’s information provided to ABC News in the aftermath.
The Tokyo-bound jet had 221 flyers aboard, and the CRJ was nearly full as well, with 53 travelers on the way to Louisiana at the time. No one was hurt on either, but naturally both flights had to be cancelled. Delta did rebook all the displaced travelers on the next available departure to get every customer on their way despite the disastrous departure events.
Putting Jets Back In The Air
A CRJ-900 tail section replacement is a major structural job that requires a complex, careful, and costly repair process. The process starts with the initial assessment (it was knocked off), which means securing the aircraft and taking it to a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility. Nondestructive testing (NDT) is performed using methods like ultrasound, X-ray, and others to evaluate the extent of the airframe damage.
Damage classification is based on the Structural Repair Manual (SRM), and a destroyed tail section naturally falls under major structural repair. The tail section replacement involves fabricating or procuring new sections of vertical stabilizers and control surfaces. The damaged structure is carefully disassembled and removed from the fuselage, with fasteners and sealants installed to preserve cabin pressurization and structural integrity.
Reinforcing the airframe can also be necessary for extensive repairs. System checks are follow the new parts installation. All affected systems are tested, including hydraulic systems, flight controls, and avionics sensors in the tail section. A cabin pressure test is performed to confirm there are no leaks in the repaired fuselage. The new tail section is primed and painted to match the rest of the aircraft after all of that is done for the cosmetic part of the repair.