The pilots of a Delta Air Lines plane flying from Madrid to New York JFK declared an emergency and diverted to a remote military airbase in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday after the Airbus A330 suffered what is believed to have been a serious engine failure.
Passengers aboard Delta flight DL-127 on July 6 reported hearing a strange ‘whizzing’ sound before the smell of smoke started to fill the cabin of the 22-year-old aircraft.
Flight Details
- Delta Air Lines flight DL-127
- Madrid Barajas (MAD) to New York JFK
- Aircraft: Airbus A330-300 (registration: N805NW)
- Engines: Two Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines
Flying high above the Atlantic at around 38,000 feet and with very limited diversion points, the pilots immediately declared a ‘Mayday’ and headed south towards Lajes Air Base on the Portuguese island of Terceira in the Azores.
The widebody aircraft, equipped with Pratt & Whitney engines, flew for one and a half hours with just one of the two engines running before landing safely at the remote military airbase.
With a population of just 54,000, there were limited resources to accommodate the passengers aboard Flight 127 in Terceira, so Delta scrambled to organize a rescue flight.
Luckily, there was a spare Airbus A330 sitting on the ground in New York JFK that had just landed following another transatlantic flight from Lisbon.
Delta rushed to find pilots and flight attendants who could work on the rescue flight, and by Sunday afternoon, the plane was on its way to the Azores to pick up the stranded passengers.
After landing in Terceira in the early hours of Monday, however, the crew could not legally work the return flight straightaway. As a result, all of the 282 passengers and 13 crew members from the original flight had to wait it out while their rescuers had some rest.
The rescue flight eventually departed Terceira at 9 pm on Monday, arriving in New York late on Monday.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Delta explained: “As safety comes before all else at Delta, the flight crew followed procedures to divert to Lajes, Azores (TER) after indication of a mechanical issue with an engine.”
“The flight landed safely, and we sincerely apologize to our customers for their experience and delay in their travels.”
Delta had also sent some of its engineers to the Azores, although the grounded plane remains stranded in Lajes as repairs continue.
A spokesperson for Delta said the airline plans to reach out to affected passengers directly to apologize for the experience and offer compensation.
So…Why couldn’t the original pilots fly the replacement plane while the rescue crew rested? Some things just don’t make sense to us common folk.
Delta should have put the RETURN crew on as passengers so they could relax BEFORE flying the plane back!
Swap crews and on they go and NO extra waiting.
They KNEW the crew would have to rest ADDING MORE time to the “rescue,” duh!
Qualified flight crew’s aren’t just sitting around waiting for something to do. They are lucky there was an aircraft of the type and size necessary that was available.