A Delta Air Lines Airbus A321 had to perform a high-speed rejected takeoff on Tuesday, after it suffered a bird strike during its take-off roll. The impact of the bird resulted in smoke and flames coming from the aircraft's left engine. Making matters worse for the aircraft and maintenance personnel was the fact that its right main tires were blown during the incident.

Flight and incident details

On Tuesday, July 26th, a Delta Air Lines Airbus A321 registered N332DN was all set to perform flight DL1057 from Denver to Atlanta. Onboard the aircraft were 197 passengers and two flight crew. Preliminary FAA incident reporting lists no cabin crew but this is unlikely.

According to The Aviation Herald, the Airbus A321 was accelerating for takeoff at approximately 17:40 local time from Denver's runway 08 when a bird was ingested by the left hand CFM56 engine. Causing an engine fire, the crew rejected takeoff at high speed, reportedly at approximately 157 knots over ground. The aircraft managed to successfully reject take-off and slowed safely to vacate the runway via a high speed turnoff. The jet then stopped clear of the runway and waited to be towed while emergency services were dispatched.

Denver air traffic control tower reported seeing smoke and flames coming from the aircraft. The A321 was later towed to the apron where passengers disembarked normally to await a replacement aircraft.

Publishing its own preliminary report on the incident on its Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) portal, the FAA reported that the aircraft struck a bird in the left engine causing a fire. It also noted that takeoff was aborted and that the aircraft blew its right main tires.

With an engine fire hard to miss, images were taken by passengers and shared to social media, with one particular photo making the rounds and shared by multiple outlets:

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Replacement aircraft secured quickly

With the four-and-a-half year old N332DN now out of service, a replacement aircraft was eventually secured to continue the service to Atlanta. The Aviation Herald notes that Delta dispatched a replacement A321-200 with registration N338DN to carry out the delayed flight DL1057.

This replacement aircraft, also four-and-a-half year old, reached Atlanta with a delay of about three-and-a-half hours. FlightRadar24.com data shows that N338DN had touched down in Denver, completing flight DL2249 at 19:55 local time. Collecting the stranded passengers, it then took off for a late flight DL1057 service to Atlanta at 21:50. Affected passengers then landed in Atlanta at 02:19, July 27th.

With a small handful of Delta flights departing late into the night and Atlanta being the carrier's largest hub, it's quite possible that some affected passengers missed onward connections to other destinations.

At the time of this article's publication, the incident aircraft, N332DN, has been on the ground in Denver for four days now, with no indication of when it will return to service.

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Sources: The Aviation Herald, FAA (ASIAS), Planespotters.net, FlightRadar24.com