When two planes collide

It's something that is not unlikely to happen, although the likelihood of such a thing happening is not usual. However, today it happened. Two planes had a minor collision at Manchester Airport due to being too close to each other on the taxiway. An airport spokesman said that "this kind of thing shouldn't happen" and I thought they never really do.

However, David Learmount, of news service Air Transport Intelligence, said incidents of aircraft being damaged at airports were relatively common. "It's a serious problem in terms of expenses, but it's very rare that it involves people getting hurt." I then thought that maybe we don't hear of the bangs and bumps unless they are so blatant as to be publicly witnessed, as today. If Mr.Learmount says it's "relatively common", and he should know, does this imply that pilots are not that good at driving a plane, more the expert at flying the things?

Posted in: airports,flight problems,Manchester Airport