Over the weekend, a Delta Air Lines Airbus A330neo operating a flight to Amsterdam had to return back to Salt Lake City due to a missing engine panel.
As we will come to explore in the article, the events around this were significant in prompting the return.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
DL56 – Salt Lake City to Amsterdam…
Delta Air Lines flight DL56 is a routine scheduled flight between Salt Lake City and Amsterdam.
The affected aircraft involved in this incident is registered as N405DX.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N405DX is a 4.4 year old Airbus A330-900neo that was delivered to the airline in February 2020.
Of the A330-900neo variant, Delta Air Lines has 27 in the fleet, of which all are in active service.
Average fleet age for the aircraft type at the airline currently stands at 2.4 years.
DL56 departed Salt Lake City at 1645 local time on March 24, and initially proceeded towards Amsterdam.
Upon reaching the border with North Dakota, the crew onboard the Delta Air Lines Airbus A330neo performed a u-turn.
It is understood that during this incident, no formal emergency was declared by crew.
Furthermore, after around two hours and 49 minutes in flight, DL56, originally bound for Amsterdam, landed safely back into Salt Lake City.
Reporting from The Aviation Herald states that the pilon panel behind engine one detached on takeoff.
N405DX Has Not Flown Since The Incident…
Since the incident, N405DX has not performed another commercial flight from Salt Lake City.
It is understood that the flight to Amsterdam was delayed by 24 hours, before passengers were on their way.
As for N405DX, it is unclear how long it will take to get the pilon panel replaced.
But for now, let’s wait and see how long this takes moving forward, as it is in the airline’s interest to do this as safely and quickly as possible.
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