The Air Serbia jet was doing everything right. It had landed at Paris Charles de Gaulle on the evening of Friday, 2 October 2026, and was standing still on the apron, waiting for instructions from air traffic control. Then an easyJet Airbus taxied past a little too close.

The easyJet aircraft's sharklet, the tall curved fin at the end of its wing, clipped the right wingtip of Air Serbia's Airbus A320, registration YU-APS. Nobody was hurt. But the Serbian jet was taken out of service for inspection, and its passengers sat on board for almost two hours before they could get off.

It is the kind of incident that rarely makes headlines, and one that happens at busy airports far more often than passengers realise.

What happened at CDG

According to Air Serbia's statement, reported by EX-YU Aviation News and aeroTELEGRAPH, YU-APS had arrived from Belgrade and was stopped on the apron awaiting air traffic control instructions when the easyJet aircraft's sharklet struck its right wingtip.

The fire service and police attended. Passengers were kept on the aircraft for almost two hours while the situation was assessed, and the A320 was then withdrawn from service for a detailed technical inspection. An investigation is under way to establish responsibility.

Wingtip fence meets sharklet

The two aircraft are close cousins with different wingtips. YU-APS is a classic Airbus A320ceo, roughly 15 years old, which carries the small arrowhead-shaped wingtip fences of the original design. Many easyJet A320s, including all its A320neos, have sharklets: blended winglets that rise about 2.4 metres above the wing and add span.

That extra structure sits at the very edge of the aircraft, which is precisely the part pilots cannot see from the cockpit. On a crowded apron, a taxiing jet relies on painted centrelines, marshallers and the expectation that nothing is parked inside its clearance. When those margins are misjudged, the wingtips are the first thing to touch.

A common, costly kind of accident

Ground collisions like this are among the most frequent incidents in commercial aviation. They seldom injure anyone, but they are expensive: a damaged wingtip means an aircraft out of service, an inspection, possibly a repair, and a cascade of cancelled or delayed flights for the airline involved.

Investigators will look at where each aircraft was positioned, what instructions both crews had received and whether the easyJet jet was following its assigned taxi route. Neither airline had said more by the weekend.

Airline pilot Gary (Garybpilot) breaks down a ground collision between two CRJ regional jets at New York's LaGuardia Airport, a similar low-speed accident.

For the passengers of Air Serbia's evening flight, it was a long, frustrating end to the journey to Paris. For everyone else, it is a reminder that some of the most delicate flying an airliner does happens at walking pace on the ground.

Sources: Air Serbia, EX-YU Aviation News, aeroTELEGRAPH, Aero Telegraf