UPS and Copa Airlines Planes Collide on a Miami Airport Taxiway: What the Radio and the Tracks Show

A UPS cargo jet and a Copa Airlines passenger plane collided on a taxiway at Miami International Airport on Saturday night, 14 November 2026.

The Federal Aviation Administration said the wingtip of Copa Airlines Flight 427, a Boeing 737 that had arrived from Panama City and was taxiing to its gate, struck the nose of UPS Flight 358, a Boeing 767 cargo jet taxiing for departure to Bogotá. It happened where two taxiways meet. The FAA said air traffic controllers had told the UPS crew to give way to the Copa flight.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue treated two people at the scene for minor injuries, and neither was taken to hospital. Other aircraft were sent along other taxiways, and airport operations were not disrupted. The FAA is investigating.

The exchange on the airport's ground frequency was recorded on the public air traffic control feed.

The Copa crew told controllers: "427, somebody hit us." A controller told the UPS crew: "358, supposed to give way to the 737 there." The controller then asked: "358, did you hit that aircraft?" The UPS crew replied: "Yeah, we went too far and then he clipped us with the wing." The Copa crew later said it seemed they were missing the left wingtip.

Both aircraft broadcast their positions on ADS-B. The UPS 767, registration N336UP, pushed back just before 9 p.m. local time, taxied south and then east, and turned south at up to about 21 knots. It slowed sharply and came to a stop by 9:04 p.m. local time, and it stayed in that spot for more than half an hour.

The Copa 737, registration HP-1826CMP, landed about 9:00 p.m. and left the runway heading south-east at 9 to 12 knots. Its last reported position, at 9:03:58 p.m., was about 25 metres south-south-west of where the 767 stopped. That places the 767's nose off the 737's left side, which fits a left wingtip striking it. The 737 sent no position for more than an hour after that.

Reports put the collision at about 9:15 p.m. The tracking data puts the meeting a few minutes after 9 p.m. The FAA has not given a time.

• Why the UPS jet did not give way. The FAA has not said, and its investigation is open.
• How much damage either aircraft has. Neither airline nor the FAA has described it beyond the Copa crew's words on the radio.
• What Copa Airlines says. Copa had not commented by the time of writing. UPS said it was aware of an incident involving one of its aircraft on the ground in Miami, that its crew was safe, and that it would work with the authorities to find out what happened.

The film is a 3D replay, not footage. Both paths come from public ADS-B data on ADS-B Exchange, and the airport layout comes from OpenStreetMap, drawn to scale. The radio clips come from the public air traffic control recording and play in their real order; film time is compressed against the real clock. The moment of contact falls between the last tracking points, so its exact geometry is shown as the reports describe it. The aircraft models are FlightGear's open-source Boeing 737-800 and 767-300, painted in each airline's colours.