OOOPS... Push-back tug accidentally driven into nose gear of Delta Air Lines plane at San Francisco Airport!

Here’s an interesting photo doing the rounds at the moment, taken by a passenger at San Francisco International Airport earlier this week.

Although it’s not immediately clear from looking at the image, it actually shows a push back tug on the ground, which was accidentally driven into the nose gear of a Delta Air Lines plane… oops!

The unfortunate incident happened moments before the aircraft was scheduled to depart on Cincinnati, Ohio-bound flight. Around 138 passengers were on board when the collision occurred, according to media reports, and they felt ‘a big time jolt’.

This could have been an expensive mishap for Delta Air Lines, but luckily for the carrier there was no evidence of damage.

NBC Bay Area interviewed one of the passengers, Bob Meyer, who explained that everyone had to disembark and wait for a replacement aircraft, which departed a few hours later. The video report is included below.

“They immediately opened the doors back up and both of the captains came off the plane and went out to inspect what happened,” he commented. “They told everybody that one of the tugs had hit the plane and we all had to get off. We couldn’t use the plane.”

The replacement plane, although just a safety precaution, helped to keep passengers calm, especially with everyone feeling a bit sensitive after the recent Asiana Airlines crash at SFO.

"Luckily they were able to get us off the plane. It would have been racing through my head the whole time if they had thought it was okay to fly the plane. You know, is it really safe to fly the plane,” Meyers added. “It’s  night time out, something that big hit the plane, I’m sure everybody out there was worried about something like that happening. You don’t want to crash land after something like that just happened over the weekend.”

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How exactly could this have happened? Was it simply a case of the driver not looking ahead? Leave your comments below – and don’t forget to like The Aviation Writer’s Facebook page to keep updated with more aviation stories, photos and videos. Click here to visit.

View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.