
Passengers hoping to fly on a Delta Air Lines jet from Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport to Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon were in for a frustrating travel experience after they were forced to deal with problem after problem, including an emergency landing, before their flight was eventually canceled.
Delta Air Lines flight DL160 to Amsterdam Schiphol departed MSP Airport on-time at 4:20 pm on February 2, but within minutes of being airborne, things started to go downhill very quickly.
The pilots of the eight-year-old Airbus A330 aircraft stopped the climb out of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul at just 5,000 feet and entered a holding pattern to the northeast of the Twin Cities as they attempted to figure out a problem with the plane’s flaps.
When the problem couldn’t be rectified, the pilots made a priority return to MSP with emergency services standing by. Given the fact that the plane was carrying eight hours’ worth of fuel for the transatlantic flight to Europe, the pilots performed an overweight landing on MSP’s 11,006-foot-long 4/11 runway.
Although the plane’s brakes were said to be glowing orange from how hot they became during the overweight landing, no smoke or fire was detected, and the aircraft was allowed to return to the gate, where engineers worked on fixing the technical snag.
After several hours, the aircraft was cleared to fly and everyone boarded the plane for a second attempt at getting to Amsterdam, but just as the aircraft was landing up for the runway ready for departure, a suspected serious medical incident occurred in the cabin.
Of course, the plane then had to head straight back to the gate so that it could be met by emergency medical responders, and by the time this had happened, the pilots and flight attendants, due to work the flight to Europe, had ‘timed out’ and couldn’t legally work a long-haul flight anymore.
As a result, despite getting off to a good start with an on-departure, Delta was forced to scrap the flight overnight and put the passengers up in hotels while agents rebooked customers on alternative flights.
While any incident like this is going to be disconcerting, given the terrible events that have impacted the aviation industry in the United States in the last couple of weeks, it should be noted that even if the plane’s flaps were completely inoperable, an aircraft can still land safely.
As the flaps help generate extra lift and drag, a plane would land at a higher speed and take longer to slow down, which is perhaps why the pilots of DL160 opted to land on MSP’s longest runway.
MSP’s 11,006-foot-long 4/11 runway is no match, however, for Runway 16R/34L at Denver International Airport, which is currently the longest commercial aviation runway in the United States, clocking in at 16,000 feet or just over three miles.
Mateusz Maszczynski honed his skills as an international flight attendant at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying ever since... most recently for a well known European airline. Matt is passionate about the aviation industry and has become an expert in passenger experience and human-centric stories. Always keeping an ear close to the ground, Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage is frequently relied upon by some of the biggest names in journalism.
Of course, the Denver airport needs that extra long runway due to its elevation at 5134 feet MSL.
Surprised it didn’t require a substantial maintenance check before being released again?
There is no rwy 4/11 . At msp or anywhere else. If the brakes were glowing orange it would take hours to cool and possibly replace damaged items.
Thank you. I wondered how on earth they would not need repair if they were glowing orange ffs. And apparently a lot of runways need to be lengthened, which would have saved plane and passengers in that recent South Korean crash. And of course not building a concrete wall at the end of a runway, duh.
So now we will hear about every emergency on any flight ad nauseum until the end of our
abbreviated attention spans.
God have mercy on us