20110729015732I

Incident narrativeon July 29, 2011 at 7:45PM CDT the duty standby inspector for the Chicago O'Hare flight standards district office received a telephone call from the great lakes regional control center to report that a delta airlines aircraft at the Chicago O'Hare e-terminal had struck another delta aircraft during push back. There were no reported injuries to any of the passengers. That inspector responded to the incident report by traveling to the scene to conduct an investigation. On arrival at the Chicago O'Hare e-terminal gates, it was determined that delta airlines, MD-88 aircraft, registration number N970DL, flight number 1777, ord to atl with 76 passenger and 5 crew members had been pushed back from gate E-13 into delta airlines A-319 aircraft, registration number N332NB, flight number 2207 with 129 passengers and 5 crewmembers. During the course of this investigation it was determined that aircraft N332NB had been pushed back from terminal gate E-15 and had requested taxi instructions from ground control. Ground control gave taxi instructions but before aircraft N332NB was able to move away from the E-15 gate area, aircraft N970DL was pushed into its right wing tip. MD-88 aircraft N970DL had requested push back from gate from gate E-13 and was informed by ground control that they could push back once they were cleared of company aircraft. The crew of N970DL assumed that they were clear of company aircraft and requested push back from the tug operator. The tug operator then initiated push back without waiting for clearance from the ramp wing walkers. Aircraft N970DL sustained damage to the left aft upper portion of the unpressurized fuselage above the airstair area and to the tailcone assembly. That damage included a fuselage puncture about 10 inches in length and other surface distortion. Aircraft N332NB sustained damage to the right wing tip fairing or winglet. Delta airlines maintenance removed the damaged right wing fairing (winglet) from N332NB and deferred it per the cdl. The aircraft departed in revenue service the following morning. The MD-88 aircraft, N970DL was taken to the old northwest hangar to await a maintenance crew. The delta airlines tug operator was subsequently tested for drugs and alcohol. The results of those test were negative. At the present time delta airlines continues with their internal investigation of this incident and have not formulated a corrective action plan. The delta airlines maintenance team that arrived at ord shortly after this incident completed the repairs to aircraft N970DL on August 8, 2011. They repaired the damage to the left aft fuselage area per (era) engineering repair authorization number 494957-14 and MD-88 drawing 9911842. All work was document on non routine log forms and all operational and functional check were accomplished. In addition the (rii) required inspections were accomplished and the aircraft was released for service and ferried out of ord on August 9, 2011.