Singapore Airlines flight 21, the 19 hour 10 minute non-stop from Newark to Singapore, struck the tail of a Spirit Airlines plane on Tuesday morning. Video from inside the Singapore Airbus A350-900 shows the damage to Spirit’s tail. The FAA describes the planes as having “clipped each other while at a gate.”
The flight was scheduled to depart at 9:35 a.m. but was delayed six and a half hours as required checks were performed on aircraft 9V-SGA.
This happened within the hour on @SingaporeAir flight SQ21, EWR to SIN, world’s longest flight at 19 hours, 10 min.
During the first minute as we pulled out, our plan’s wingtip hit a @SpiritAirlines tail. Don’t know whose fault it is, but you can see the damage in this video.… pic.twitter.com/t3rN30mkoh
— Sree Sreenivasan (sreenet.substack.com) (@sree) March 3, 2026
For low speed wingtip contact on the ground, Singapore would have needed to inspect the structure, clear it with either no damage or within allowable limits, repair it if needed, and issue a maintenance release. This isn’t a simple walkaround. If composites are involved at the wingtip, that’s an even more detailed inspection.
Since the plane took off – as one of the two longest flights in the world (Singapore’s New York JFK flight is about 3 miles longer), there was either no damage – Spirit’s tail took it all – or there was minor cosmetic damage like paint or a replaceable fairing.
