Ghanaian authorities have banned a single Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-300ER aircraft from flying into the African country’s airspace. The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) wrote a letter to Delta Air Lines, asking it not to send the 767 with registration N195DN on any flights to Ghana. This temporary ban comes after the aircraft in question developed technical snags multiple times.

Delta Boeing 767 banned from Ghana

On August 19th, the GCAA asked Delta Air Lines to refrain from using a 25-year-old Boeing 767 widebody on any flights to or from Ghana, according to Pulse Ghana. The regulator cited several instances when the specific plane developed a problem as the main reason for the ban.

The first such incident occurred on July 25th, when N195DN was about to begin its flight from New York JFK to Accra (ACC) airport in Ghana. Delta was operating a special flight on the route as it was forced to cancel a scheduled flight the day before due to operational reasons. After about two hours into the flight, N195DN turned back towards JFK, following a fuel imbalance issue.

The GCAA’s letter read,

“This was the same aircraft that had to return to JFK on 25th July, 2022 a few hours after take-off from JFK and which was widely reported on in various media outlets.”

As it turned out, this specific plane suffered a similar issue a day before the mentioned incident. N195DN was operating a transatlantic service from JFK to Prague (PRG) but turned back after around an hour into the trip.

There’s more

A few days after the mentioned incidents, the same plane was used to operate Delta’s daily service to Accra, Ghana, on July 31st. Thankfully, the plane completed the entire trip without any issues. However, N195DN again developed a problem just after leaving the gate at ACC.

The aircraft was made to return to the gate, and the flight was ultimately canceled. Another Boeing 767 carried the stranded passengers to JFK, while N195DN stayed at ACC for another two days and returned back to the US on August 3rd. In its letter, the GCAA notes that the Boeing 767 was used by Delta Air Lines after the incident on July 25th, when it should have been repaired in a way that the problem does not arise again. Instead, the airline used the airframe on domestic flights within the US before the July 31st flight back to Accra.

Details regarding the specific issue are scanty but Simple Flying has written to Delta Air Lines seeking more answers. This article will be updated with the airline’s response.

About the airframe in question

According to data from ch-aviation, N195DN is a 25-year-old Boeing 767-300ER widebody aircraft. It was delivered to Delta Air Lines on September 30th, 1997, and has been with the carrier ever since. The airframe has clocked more than 106,000 flight hours over more than 15,620 takeoff and landing cycles up to April 30th, 2022.

Delta has 66 Boeing 767 aircraft in its fleet, including the -400ER variant. Therefore, it won’t be an issue for the airline to find other alternatives for its daily service to Accra. With that being said, the aircraft involved in these incidents should probably be looked at in order to avoid such situations in the future.

Source: Pulse Ghana, ch-aviation