HOUSTON – Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are working to figure out what went wrong during a collision between two private jets at Hobby Airport.
Tuesday’s collision caused a ground stop, which also delayed, diverted and canceled flights.
There was frustration from passengers with many having to stay the night elsewhere without their bags, which piled up at baggage claim. Both bags and passengers have been reunited-- most of them, anyway. Dave Bechard was happy to walk out with his.
“Got to the airport yesterday in Phoenix, there about six hours until we finally realized, started researching the news. My neighbor, he works for Southwest, reached to him and got the word of what was going on and so just went ahead and got a hotel for the night,” he said.
Brittni Rodriguez was in Baltimore when she said friends here in Houston began filling her in on what was going on at Hobby.
“I actually work here at the airport, so a couple of friends that were working last night told me what was happening and I heard from Twitter and news notifications,” she said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the problems began at about 3:20 p.m. Tuesday when a Hawkers 850XP departed without permission and collided with a Cessna 510. The damage to the Cessna was visible, but no one on board was injured.
What followed was a ground stop due to the debris, four cancelations, 80 delayed flights and 23 diversions to Bush.
“It was just a real inconvenience because no luggage, no nothing. Had to grab something to eat, stay the night, get on the plane. You can imagine not feeling too good,” said Roy Rodriguez.
The NTSB said in a statement they sent a team of six to begin the investigation into the accident. The team is arriving Wednesday and is expecting to be on-scene for three to five days.
They will be looking at the damage to both planes and conducting interviews with all parties involved.
A preliminary report will be available within 30 days on the NTSB website.