As reasons for a flight delay go, this is certainly a new one: A Delta Air Lines flight from LaGuardia to Jacksonville was delayed by three hours on Sunday after a passenger was reportedly “soaked” in deicing fluid.
Delta flight DL-1307 was due to depart LaGuardia at around 2:10 pm on January 18, but with temperatures hovering around 32–36 °F and a mix of snow and freezing rain falling over the airport, flights were already delayed so that airplanes could be deiced.
The pilots of the Airbus A220 taxiied the plane to one of the designated deicing ‘pads’ at LaGuardia, and from there, they were due to head straight to the runway for departure.
At this point, radio chatter between the pilots and the air traffic control tower, obtained by the ATC App and shared by ‘The New Area 51,’ revealed a surprising reason why the aircraft wasn’t going to head for the runway after all.
Here’s how the conversation went…
Pilot: “Hey, ground, Delta 1307, coming out of the Echo dei-ce pad, we need to get back to the gate.”
ATC: “1307, you need to go back to the ramp?”
Pilot: “Confirm, we’re going back to the ramp. Still coordinating for a gate at this time. Uh, but we need to go back to A Gate. We’re coordinating with operations regarding exactly where they want to put us.”
ATC: “Okay, standby one… and what was the reason?”
Pilot: “We had a bunch of deicing fluid leak inside the aircraft and soak the aircraft.”
And here’s the actual exchange:
While the reason for the delay is now known, it remains unclear exactly how deicing fluid leaked inside the aircraft… especially to the extent that a passenger was reportedly “soaked.”
However it happened, you wouldn’t want deicing fluid on you for too long. While modern formulations aren’t as toxic as they used to be, the fluid could cause skin irritation and breathing difficulties.
In the end, Delta flight 1307 left LaGuardia at 5:22 pm, more than three hours behind schedule. Presumably, after the plane had been deiced for a second time… and this time without incident.
