On June 8, 2006 an American Trans Air airplane at LaGuardia Airport, New York en route to Chicago, Illinois sustained substantial damage when a foreign object struck the tail of the airplane during taxi.  The foreign object happened to be an aluminum diamond plate which was used to cover the area of the taxiway that was receiving maintenance.  The aluminum diamond plate damaged the right horizontal stabilizer.  There were no injuries to the crewmembers and passengers aboard but this resulted in improper airport maintenance by contract maintenance personnel.

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According to an article entitled “Preventing Driver Slips and Falls” by the National Association of Wholesaler – Distributors, “Extruded safety steps do provide an excellent non-slip surface, but wet or oily ‘diamond plate’ can be almost as slippery as a flat surface.” Even though diamond plate flooring, such as aluminum diamond plate, contains a pattern of raised diamonds that act as a slip resistant tread to prevent slip and fall injuries, it does not provide the same slip resistant coverage as coated non slip surfaces.