German plane collides with El Al jet on Tel Aviv tarmac; no injuries

A German plane collided early Wednesday morning with an El Al jet on the tarmac at Ben Gurion Airport.

There were no injuries. All of the passengers were evacuated back to the airport terminal.

The Berlin-bound Germania Boeing 737 was reversing out of its parking place en route to takeoff when it clipped the tail of the El Al 767, set to fly to Rome. The El Al plane had already moved away from its passenger entry sleeve and had come to a stop.

The incident is being investigated.

The damage to the El Al plane was estimated to cost “millions of shekels” to repair, according to The Marker business daily.

נתב"ג לפנות בוקר תאונה קלה בין 2 מטוסים
ללא נפגעים/קרדיט חדר מצב ארצי . pic.twitter.com/TmPb6azYs8

— אסנת מידן (@caet222) March 28, 2018

The crash came hard on the heels of the chaotic evacuation of a plane due to fly from Budapest, Hungary to Tel Aviv on Tuesday, during which an Israeli woman fell out of the doorway onto the ground and was seriously injured.

Passengers had panicked when smoke from a nearby towing tug entered the plane via the air-conditioning system.

Although the pilot repeatedly announced to passengers that the smoke was coming from outside and that there was no danger, those on board apparently left their seats and rushed the doors.

In the commotion, the cabin crew opened the doors to deploy the emergency chutes enabling passengers to leave the plane. Dikla Abitbul, 38, a mother of two from the central city of Lod, apparently fell from the aircraft before the chute was opened, sustaining a serious head injury and breaking her ribs and arms.