Former President Donald J. Trump landed in Cincinnati on Wednesday for a campaign fundraiser, but the ubiquitous Boeing 757 was missing, as it collided with a parked plane while taxiing at a Florida airport early Sunday morning.
It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Trump was on board the plane at the time of the crash, based on details released by the Federal Aviation Administration and publicly available information about the two planes involved. The incident occurred hours after Trump held a campaign rally on the Jersey Shore.
The Boeing’s registration number is listed as N757AF, and no injuries were reported, according to an FAA notification about the incident.
This is the same tail number as Trump Force One, the nickname given to Trump’s private jet, which regularly shuttles former President Trump to campaign rallies and court appearances. The plane has long been a source of pride for Trump, not to mention speculation that it might be seized as part of a civil fraud penalty in New York.
But on Wednesday, when Mr. Trump disembarked from a much smaller private jet at Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport, the plane was inconspicuous.
Trump’s campaign did not respond to questions about the plane’s status.
The FAA said the Boeing 757 landed at Palm Beach International Airport around 1:20 a.m. Sunday and as it taxied, one of its wing plates struck the parked aircraft’s rear elevator. Winglets are small tips curved from the end of an aircraft wing to reduce aerodynamic drag.
The FAA said in a statement that no one was on board the parked aircraft, which was registered to private charter company VistaJet, adding that the incident occurred in an area of the airfield where the agency does not direct aircraft. The agency said it was investigating the incident.
According to the FAA’s aircraft registry, the Boeing plane is registered with DJT Operations ILLC. DJT Operations ILLC is one of the companies Trump owned and resigned from in early 2017 when he took office.
The agency did not say the extent of damage to the two planes or the type of VistaJet plane involved. VistaJet did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Mr. Trump is in New York several days each week for a criminal trial related to hush money payments, and lives at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, just a few miles from Palm Beach International Airport.
He has frequently used airport tarmacs and hangars for campaign rallies, saving time and giving supporters a chance to cheer as planes approach.
