Trump's Jet Clipped a Parked Plane in Florida – The New York Times
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No one was injured in the incident, which happened while the jet was taxiing early Sunday, the F.A.A. said. On Wednesday, the former president was traveling on a different plane.
Neil Vigdor and
Former President Donald J. Trump landed in Cincinnati on Wednesday for a campaign fund-raiser, but without his ubiquitous Boeing 757, which had clipped a parked plane as it was taxiing at a Florida airport early on Sunday morning.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Trump was aboard his plane at the time of the mishap, according to details released by the Federal Aviation Administration and public information about the two aircraft that were involved. The incident happened several hours after Mr. Trump held a campaign rally at the Jersey Shore.
No injuries were reported, according to the F.A.A.’s notice about the incident, which listed the Boeing’s registration number as N757AF.
That is the same tail number as “Trump Force One,” the moniker for Mr. Trump’s airliner, which regularly shuttles the former president to campaign rallies and court appearances. The aircraft has been a source of braggadocio for Mr. Trump over the years — not to mention speculation about whether it might be seized as part of his civil fraud penalty in New York.
But on Wednesday, the aircraft was conspicuously absent as Mr. Trump descended from a considerably smaller private jet at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.
Mr. Trump’s campaign did not respond to questions about the status of his plane.
According to the F.A.A., a Boeing 757 landed at Palm Beach International Airport at about 1:20 a.m. on Sunday and was taxiing when one of its winglets struck the rear elevator of a parked plane. A winglet is a small tip curving off the end of an aircraft’s wing in order to reduce aerodynamic drag.
No one was inside the parked plane, which was registered to VistaJet, a private charter company, the F.A.A. said in a statement, adding that the incident occurred in an area of the airfield where the agency does not direct aircraft. The agency said it was investigating the incident.
According to the F.A.A.’s aircraft registry, the Boeing plane is registered to DJT Operations I LLC, one of the companies Mr. Trump owned and resigned from at the beginning of 2017, when he became president.
The agency did not say how much damage the two planes sustained or specify the type of VistaJet aircraft that was involved. VistaJet did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump, who is in New York several days each week for a criminal trial related to a hush-money payment, lives just a few miles from the Palm Beach International Airport, at Mar-a-Lago, his private club.
He has frequently used airport tarmacs and hangars as a setting for his campaign rallies, saving him time and giving his supporters a chance to cheer on the plane’s approach.
Neil Vigdor covers politics for The Times, focusing on voting rights issues and election disinformation. More about Neil Vigdor
Yan Zhuang is a Times reporter in Seoul who covers breaking news. More about Yan Zhuang
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