I was sitting on UA 334 from ORD to CMH which was on its way to runway and was listening to Channel 9 when I heard something that appears to be an accident between a truck and a plane (Eagle?) around 7:50pm. The pilot told ATC that a truck had collided with his plane, and he commented "(not audible) that was unbelievable...", ATC replied something like ".......grab that driver....." Then, after 2~3 minutes, a dozen of emergency vehicles rushed to the scene and surrounded a small regional plane. Since it was dark, all I could see was the emergency vehicles' lights. Our flight was told to "get around the emergency vehicles and continue to the runway." Did anyone also notice the accident?

Interestingly enough, I found this news online. Apparently, a similar accident happened in the morning!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,5025616.story

Coincidently I was also on (slightly delayed) UA 344 today and also noticed the literally dozens of emergency vehicles on the tarmac. I, too, would be curious as to what the commotion was all about. Channel 9 wasn't working in my seat, so I missed it.

I wonder if the truck driver tried to pull a hit-and-run?

From the Chicago Tribune (cut & paste of the link by OP):

CHICAGO - An American Eagle truck backed into an American Airlines plane Monday morning as the aircraft was leaving its gate at O'Hare International Airport, officials said.

No one was injured, and the incident was under investigation.

The accident happened around 10:30 a.m. as Flight 403 was getting ready to depart for El Paso, Texas, American Airlines spokesman Billy Sanez said.

The MD-80 had 111 passengers and five crew members on board.

All were transferred to another plane that departed two hours later.

>>>>Strange that the OP mentions a second occurrence - I wonder if the Trib got the timing wrong...

Moving this to the Chicago forum.

iluv2fly
Moderator, UA