A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 between New York and London declared an emergency, prompting a u-turn at the Atlantic crossing.
The incident, which happened last Saturday, was due to an important system on the aircraft malfunctioning.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
DL1 – New York to London…
Delta Air Lines flight DL1 is a routine scheduled flight between New York JFK and London Heathrow.
The aircraft involved in this incident was registered as N845MH.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N845MH is a 22.0 year old Boeing 767-400 that was delivered to the airline in April 2002.
Of the 767-400 variant, Delta Air Lines has 21 of them in the fleet, of which all are in active service.
Average fleet age for the variant of aircraft stands at 23.3 years.
DL1 departed New York JFK at 2107 local time on March 23 and proceeded eastbound to London Heathrow.
However, upon reaching the Atlantic crossing, a u-turn was commenced by the crew onboard.
Reporting from The Aviation Herald states that the crew received unreliable airspeed messages.
This is particularly dangerous as lower speeds could increase the risk of the aircraft dropping out of the sky.
Furthermore, once this was identified, an emergency was declared to ATC and the return to New York began.
Canadian TSB Comments…
The Canadian TSB said the following regarding the Delta Air Lines flight to London:
“When in cruise flight at about 50°57′ N, 050°11′ W, the flight crew observed an indicated airspeed disagree message.”
“The flight crew referenced the quick reference handbook, identified the malfunctioning air data computer and contacted company operations and maintenance departments.”
“The flight crew decided to return to KJFK, then declared an emergency and coordinated with the ATS for the air turnback to KJFK where a landing was made without further incident.
“Maintenance replaced the first officer side air data module, conducted a pitot static system test, and the aircraft was returned to service.”
Delta Air Lines flight DL1 for London landed safely back into New York without further incident.
Grounded For Less Than 24 Hours…
Data from RadarBox shows that N845MH was grounded for less than 24 hours following the incident.
Furthermore, it seemed that technicians didn’t take long to fix the issue.
The day after the incident, N845MH was sent from New York to Madrid.
Since the incident on the London flight, the Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 has operated normally.
All eyes will be on whether anymore developments follow from this incident or not.
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