A routine taxi at one of Italy's busiest business-aviation gateways turned into a dramatic near-miss on August 10, 2026, when an airport service vehicle drove into the path of a taxiing private jet at Milan Linate Airport (LIN). The collision, captured on video that quickly spread online, left a small car wrecked but caused no serious injuries.
Footage of the incident shows a Fiat Panda-type vehicle crossing an active taxiway as a Hawker Beechcraft 400A light business jet moved toward the runway. The driver appeared to notice the aircraft only at the last moment and made a last-ditch attempt to swerve clear. The jet's nose struck the vehicle, and the force of the impact turned the aircraft to the right before both the jet and the car came to a halt.
According to Flightradar24, the aircraft — registered I-AERB — is owned and operated by Slam, an Italian aircraft and helicopter operator also known as Slam Air. Photos taken after the collision show the car severely damaged, with its right-hand door and window crumpled by the aircraft's nose. The driver was seen exiting the vehicle shortly afterward, and no serious injuries were reported.
The disruption rippled through Linate's schedule. Corriere della Sera reported that operations at the airport were paused for about 40 minutes. During the closure, an ITA Airways flight was diverted to Bergamo (BGY) and a KLM service was sent to Milan Malpensa (MXP) instead.
Ground collisions of this kind are among the hazards airports work hardest to design out. Taxiways are tightly controlled environments where service vehicles must give way to aircraft, and a single lapse — a driver crossing without clearance or losing situational awareness — can put people and expensive equipment at risk. That the outcome here was a damaged car rather than injuries owed as much to the low speeds involved as to good fortune.
The Hawker Beechcraft 400A is a light business jet widely used for short-haul corporate and charter work, valued for its speed and its ability to operate into smaller fields. At Linate — a slot-constrained airport that sits close to central Milan and handles a heavy mix of business jets and scheduled traffic — even a brief taxiway closure can force diversions and knock-on delays, as this incident showed.
Sources: Simple Flying, AeroTime. Featured image: AI-generated by AviationShop. By Elena Vargas.
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