Jet, Ground Vehicle Collide; Passengers Evacuate on Chutes

A Delta jetliner collided with a vehicle on the ground at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport on Sunday night, causing a small fire and prompting evacuation of the passengers, an airline spokesman said.

Several people suffered minor injuries, mostly scrapes and sprains, as they slid down the plane’s emergency chutes after the accident, Delta’s Bill Berry said.

A fire broke out in the ground vehicle and was quickly extinguished, he said.

The plane, an MD-88 with 96 people aboard, had just landed on a flight from Savannah and was taxiing to the gate when the collision occurred, Berry said.

“The fire was outside the airplane. It never did get in the airplane,” Berry said. “The only smoke inside was some sucked in by the air conditioning.”