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United plane at San Francisco airport collides with another jet while pulling back from gate
By Pilar Arias
Published September 03, 2025
Two United Airlines planes were involved in a minor collision at San Francisco International Airport on Labor Day, the airline confirmed.
"Monday night, a United aircraft being pushed back from the gate at San Francisco International Airport made contact with the tail of a parked United aircraft," a United spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
No injuries were reported, and passengers on both planes were able to board other planes to reach their destinations.
The collision between UA796 — which was headed to Boston — and UA1871 — which was headed to Denver — garnered social media attention.
UNITED AIRLINES PLANES IN SAN FRANCISCO CLIP WINGS
United Airlines planes takeoff and land at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in San Francisco, California, United States on August 6, 2025 as United Airlines flights grounded nationwide because of computer problems. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu)
"Last night a collision at San Francisco United Airlines between two 737 aircraft," aviation community X account @Airline_Secret said in a post. "Failure of tow bar of a tug is rumored to blame."
"UA796 was boarding passengers at the gate, the tug broke away on UA1871 and the aircraft rolled back," the post concluded. It included a photo that newsgathering website Storyful said was originally posted to Reddit.
PASSENGER IN CUSTODY AFTER 'DIRECT THREAT' TO AIRPLANE SHUTS DOWN SEATTLE AIRPORT RUNWAYS
In this Oct. 24, 2017, file photo, the air traffic control tower is in sight as a plane takes off from San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. (Jeff Chiu)
"Currently waiting to see if they get another plane for us... A small bump and the plane shook for a bit and pilot made the announcement a few minutes later," someone claiming to be a passenger posted to Reddit.
Passengers told local TV news station KGO the hit felt like an earthquake.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident, KGO reported.
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Back in May, the right wingtip of a United Airlines plane departing a gate collided with the left wingtip of another United plane in San Francisco, according to the FAA.
Fox News Digital's Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/united-plane-san-francisco-airport-collides-another-jet-while-pulling-back-gate