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Planes Collide On The Ground At JFK

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two planes collided on the ground early Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport, forcing 155 passengers to disembark.

An Air India flight and a Jet Blue flight made contact near Terminal 4 at the airport around 6:15 a.m. Saturday morning, according to Jet Blue spokesman Alex Headrick.

Jet Blue Flight 145, bound for West Palm Beach, Fla., was standing near the gate when it was clipped by Air India Flight 102, which had just landed, the spokesman said.

Headrick said it all started the Jet Blue flight was pushing back from the gate when its crew realized the plane's tow bar was broken.

It was while the Jet Blue crew was waiting in place for a new tow bar, that the Jet Blue Airbus A320 was clipped by the taxiing Air India plane -- a Boeing 777.

The left wingtip of the taxiing plane hit the rudder of the Jet Blue Airbus A320.

The 155 Jet Blue passengers switched planes. No injuries were reported.

Passengers on the Air India flight described the experience as being as if their plane had hit a pothole or a speed bump on the runway, 1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg reported.

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"It was a bump, but I don't know if, actually, there was any crash or something, because nobody said," one woman on the Air India flight said. "It was just a small thump, that's it."

"I'm not sure what happened, but I did not feel anything," another said.

Those on the flight from New Delhi were praising their 15-hour journey, as many did not know what happened.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft were not under air traffic control at the time of the accident. The agency was investigating Saturday morning.

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