CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES

A commuter plane bumped into another small-sized aircraft as it backed away from its gate Thursday afternoon at Los Angeles International Airport.

At 4:40 p.m., an American Eagle flight bound for San Diego knocked into the tail section of another of the carrier’s planes parked at LAX’s midfield terminal, said Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

None of the 40 passengers and three crew members aboard the departing aircraft were injured, but there was slight damage to one or both of the planes, said Nancy Castles, a spokeswoman for LAX.

The plane returned to the gate and the passengers were booked on other flights, airport officials said. No one was on the other plane at the time of the bump.

FAA traffic controllers were not directing either of the two Ambraer E135 turboprop planes at the time of the collision, Gregor said. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident, Castles said.

-- Joel Rubin