In New York, no free lunch but plenty of complimentary winglet clipping (Update)

New York City's John F. Kennedy airport carries the slogan "Where America greets the world." How, exactly, does America do this?

By clipping winglets.

An Air France A380 became the latest victim on Monday night as F-HPJD was taxiing from terminal one for takeoff. En route it passed Delta's terminal complex and clipped the tail of a Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-700, N641CA, to be exact, NYC Aviation says (they also have pictures). That impact managed to rotate the CRJ a full 90 degrees, as captured in the above photos and video below. The upper half of the A380's edge of wing device, which for all you winglet connoisseurs is technically a wingtip, was lodged in the CRJ's left horizontal stabilizer.

LiveATC.net captured the recording of the flight deck and ground control communications before and after the incident (free registration required). We hear controllers give taxi instructions to Air France 7 Super and then later the controller calling for emergency personnel to the intersection of taxiways alpha and mike. We hear the controller say the CRJ conducted an evacuation while requesting the A380 to shut down its engines.

The Air France pilot was very suave, responding to the controller's offer of assistance by saying, "No, we are just waiting for someone from the company from the ground."

In 2006 a Qantas 747-400 hit the blast fence at JFK, damaging its wing. After a trip to the hangar, VH-OEE emerged sans-starboard winglet. The aircraft was patched up by Boeing and returned to Australia three weeks after the incident. (Click here for photos.)

Another 747-400, this time belonging to Air China, had a winglet incident with a Delta aircraft in 2007, also at JFK.

After escaping New York's mobsters, you thought your aircraft could leave the Big Apple without a scrape? Fuhgeddaboudit.