A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-300ER faced a long day after a mechanical failure led to a diversion. The crew first diverted to Port of Spain where the mechanical fault was addressed. However, after that, the crew had to divert again to San Juan, Puerto Rico due to duty time limits.
The incident
The Aviation Herald reports that DL60 was en route to Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport from Rio de Janeiro when the aircraft faced an inflight failure. The crew was alerted to a generator failure.
The pilots made the decision to divert to Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. Just under six hours after takeoff, the aircraft landed safely in Port of Spain according to data from FlightAware. Unfortunately, it seems that the passengers could not disembark in Port of Spain. This was likely due to immigration and customs issues.
But that was not the end of it. After about six hours on the ground, the aircraft took off once again. However, the aircraft then diverted to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The problem now was crew duty time restrictions. Although, reporting indicates that the passengers underwent customs and immigration procedures for entry into the United States in San Juan.
After about four hours in San Juan, the aircraft continued to Atlanta with a new crew onboard the same aircraft. Finally, passengers made it to the world's busiest airport with a final delay of just over 11 hours.
Delta offered Simple Flying the following statement:
We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay of Delta flight 60. We know this isn’t the experience customers expect on Delta and have offered a gesture of service recovery as an apology.
Furthermore, there were 221 passengers aboard this Boeing 767-300.
The Boeing 767
This Boeing 767-300ER is registered as N154DL. The aircraft, according to Planespotters is over 28 years old. First, the plane flew for Gulf Air before heading over to Delta in 1997. This aircraft is an extended range version of the Boeing 767-300.
It is unclear exactly what fault the aircraft experienced. However, pilots do not make the decision to divert lightly. Diversions come with a bunch of new headaches for the passengers and crew alike. It appears that this was serious enough for the pilots to divert.
The aircraft is now back in service according to Delta Air Lines. It appears that the issue was fixed in Port of Spain and thus the aircraft could operate the continuation flights.
Were you onboard this flight? How were you affected by this Delta Boeing 767 diversion? Let us know in the comments!