It’s not every day that you see an aviation authority ban one specific jet from operating passenger flights to a country, but that’s exactly what we’re seeing here. First let’s talk about the background of this incident, and then we’ll talk about what authorities in Ghana are demanding.
Continue reading: Ghana Bans A Delta Boeing 767 (Yes, Just One)
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In addition the same aircraft reported the same problem on arrival on 1 August 2022 in Accra, leading to cancellation of its return flight to JFK.
It appears from another blog that Ghana has now banned all FL 767 from flying to Ghana. They want a complete change of aircraft type. If I were Delta, I would just pull this specific aircraft out of service. Beats having problems with passengers not wanting to fly on it.
Ghana has not done so. They have merely requested Delta to provide them with details of their plans to change the aircraft type.
Ghana is lucky that Delta serves their sorry third-world banana republic. If they get too cute, I hope Delta just cuts service as a massive screw you to the wannabe Ghanaian aviation authorities.
AIRLINES SHOULD STOP TREATING PASSENGERS FROM SOME COUNTRIES WITH UTTER DISRESPECT AS IF THEY ARE BEING TRANSPORTED FOR FREE!! NO !! WHY ALOT A TIRED OLD AIRCRAFT TO A SPECIFIC ROUTE CONSTANTLY ?! UNITED AIRLINES ALSO FLIES TO GHANA BUT HAS SHOWN GREAT DEAL OF RESPECT TO PEOPLE ON THAT ROUTE USING AIRCRAFT IN GENERALLY GOOD CONDITION (787s). ALWAYS REMEMBER, "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS KING " EXCUSE ME THEY HAVE PAID FOR THE SERVICES AND DESERVE BETTER...
More bans from more countries on Delta's dinosaur 767s would be good for everyone. Flew on this POS bird to Prague last June and it was just yuck plane.
With the statement, is it an "advice" or like a "we don't welcome this aircraft"?
DELTA HAS SHOWN A LOT OF DISRESPECT TOWARDS PASSENGERS ON THIS GHANA ROUTE. AS IF THEY DID NOT PAY FOR THEIR FLIGHTS. WHY ASSIGN OLD AND TIRED AIRCRAFT CONSTANTLY TO A SPECIFIC ROUTE ? IS DELTA NOT SHAMED BY THE FACT THAT ITS COMPETITOR, UNITED AIRLINES HAS SO FAR SHOWN GREATER RESPECT FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS IN GHANA BY USING MODERN AND GENERALLY RELIABLE AIRCRAFT (787). REMEMBER "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS KING"
The fact that you have no idea what a third world country or banana republic is and liberally using it to describe any developing country should be enough for everyone to disregard your poorly worded comment
No country wants to feel that an airline is flying its shitty problem riddled planes to their country.
Would Delta do that to European countries? Probably not... it's really this mentality that they can do this to certain countries.
Impressed that the aviation authority took a stand before more serious problems occur.
They tried something similar with BA a while back - they didn’t like the older aircraft with less desirable configurations being sent their way, but as I understand there just isn’t the yield to warrant a more “desirable” aircraft/configuration and so BA called their bluff and end of story. Honestly I think more people should pitch a fit over their Deltas subpar offerings…..even as a DM I just can’t understand the fanboying over such crap products (ok ok a350 and a smattering of 767s aside)…..
To be clear, I wrote this was a request from Ghana, not a requirement. My story included the full memo.
Not just the aircraft, but they were lobbying BA to move the departure terminal from LHR T3 to T5 so passengers would be able to use “better facilities”, of course it fell on deaf ears.
Article actually mentions that the same plane was scheduled to fly to Prague, i.e. in Europe.
At various points this month (August 2022) DL has the 763 scheduled to Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, the UK, and Ireland. So yes, DL would do this to European countries.
I'm certain Delta's not showing disrespect to Ghana given all of the routes they fly this aircraft type and even this specific plane. Having flown on this aircraft type frequently, most recently on a domestic route in the US, I can tell you it's not a 787, but it fits a need in terms of capacity to support frequency of flights. Flying bigger aircrafts can often result in decreased frequency if the demand isn't there.
Bit rude. Ghana is one of the most stable and respected countries in Africa with a decent economy to boot.
Delta should just cancel their service to Ghana. Then they won't have to deal with the issue anymore.
Sorry SusanP, but you have no idea of the nationality of the author Delta1 is.
The responsible way to deal with legitimately raised safety concerns is to address them and satisfy the regulatory authority accordingly, not to cut and run. That's probably why you don't run Delta...
Sounds like the Ghanaian authorities have more common sense than Delta.
Having been to Accra several times in the past year, it is not a third world s-hole. In fact I'm going back Friday, but on UA out of IAD. No way I'm flying DL.
Sue, better cancel your flight to NYC you talked about earlier...doggone 'mericans
Safety for passengers and the metal has always been Delta's #1 and would always be regardless. Delta takes it seriously and go above and beyond to make customers happy. If the technical issues experienced was beyond their control I'm 100% sure the decision made to fly would have been different. Hey, Ghana, you should be grateful that you have such company as Delta operating For those who are unhappy, please talk to your government to buy their own aircraft and operate their own airline and see how far they csn manage and maintain the service...just a suggestion. Delta, thank you so much for your years of exceptional service to Accra. May the Almighty always protect your crew, metal and the passengers you carry.
Love Delta passenger !!!!
Who cares. They are banning an aircraft not an airline or route. In fact it makes sense. They don't want this plane to arrive and then have a problem for them to deal with there.
But even if you get delayed out of Europe, you'll only get $595 compensation based on today's exchange rate. Oh, I guess Ghana should established a compensation requirement like $6,000 to make sure DL sends in good planes.
It’s a pathetic US-based airline. I don’t think you need be so worked up. The US3 have a reputation for flying outdated junk compared to the rest of the major European and Asian airlines. Class and the U.S. are not synonymous.
I was hoping Delta cancels the service to my country as well. What a junk of an airline.
One can see this as inline with the EU261 - "stop scheduling over-ambitiously".
The FAA could usefully develop this idea: "if an aircraft has more than three mechanical issues causing a delay of more than two hours each within thirty days, then any further such delay within the following thirty days incurs a fine of USD250k.
i.e. if there's a problem, investigate and fix it properly.
One would also need: Any victimisation/pressure on pilots and mechanics to not report gets a fine of a least one week's group revenue.
This Airline always sends the much newer and well maintained planes to Europe but sends the old, dirty, and I’ll-maintained ones to Ghana. This is a gross disrespect to Ghanaians. The entire company has to be banned as a deterrent to the other airlines. Yes, we are black but we have the same color of blood as any other person
If only there was a way to magically snap your fingers and "fix it properly".
An issue like this involves troubleshooting and that often means trial and error. Fuel balance issues don't usually occur on shorter flights because the quantity of fuel on board is a lot less, so it is inevitable that such snags recur only when the aircraft is dispatched transatlantic despite the best efforts of the maintenance team.
I don't doubt that Delta is doing everything they can to sort this out - after all the airline is the entity that suffers most when flights are delayed and cancelled. They however need to communicate what they are doing to GCAA to satisfy them that it is not being swept under the carpet.
@Lawrence - Do you really believe that somewhere in Delta HQ there is a group saying "we need to find an old plane to keep around just so we can disrespect Ghanaians"?
This same aircraft has flown to Prague, Edinburgh and Lisbon in the past week. Has it suddenly become "well maintained" and "newer"?
Your ignorance and persecution complex is showing. Chill.
Delta is not infallible. There are legitimate safety concerns here about a specific aircraft and a recurrent snag, and the regulator is doing its job by requesting detailed information about remedial action taken.
Delta is not used to dealing with hands on regulators like this, so I can easily see that they delayed responding to this request. That doesn't mean they were operating unsafely or that GCAA was overreaching. It just means that the two sides will communicate better now and the issue will undoubtedly be resolved imminently.
Since July 5th, this particular ("old, dirty, ill-maintained") 763 reg. N195DN flew to:
Edinburgh, Los Angeles, San Diego, Atlanta, Orlando, Anchorage, Lagos, Barcelona, Prague, Bogota, Reykjavik, Sao Paulo and Lisbon.
But sure, it's a gross disrespect to Ghanians... I'm also sure Delta has a list of nations to offend – judging by frequency, Scots, Icelanders and Czechs are top of that list.
I remember some kind of same issues a while back. It was about the kind of aircraft assigned to Lagos. I don’t remember if DL was involved, but Nigerian authorities were complaining about old 767s being systematically sent for Nigerian routes… the same happened in Liberia as well. Some African countries tend to be… paranoid. And we all guess why…
One particular airframe (N195DN) is restricted from operating in Ghana airspace until further notice.
The remainder of the fleet is still able to operate to Ghana, but GCAA has requested that they review the deployment of "aging" 767s to Ghana at the earliest opportunity.
First part is perfectly justified. Second part is populist fluff intended for the peanut gallery.
This is good news for Ghanaians and all the passengers .I fly with delta all the time and this problems and few others happen all the time .I was living Ghana on June 17th 2022 the flight was supposed to live 11:45 pm but we end up living 1 Am .because of technical issues and this pilot always lie to us about the real issues they don’t tell us what the issue is but says someone flush some baby diaper in the toilet and that’s why they have to stay late and remove it and some crab
It’s time Our leaders have to stand up for the country ,Delta will not fly this crazy plane to UK because they respect their authorities there
It’s time to change and give us a newer and better plane ✈️ Fly us rather than the Ghost plane ,thank God nothing happened to anyone .God bless us all .
Ironically, the exact plane that is banned from Ghana (N195DN) flew to Edinburgh in the UK last night. So much for that theory...
Ghanna is a third world country and as a president Trump once said also a shithole
They need to ban all 767 from flying there. Delta does a POOR JOB with their attention to African destinations. The 350 should be Flown into the continent. Customers spend way too much money to receive crappy equipment. They would never do that to Europe and Asia. Africa and South America gets the crappy planes and poor or limited meal service. Shame on you Delt
Amazing some uneducated people call Racism nowadays..... Ghana needs to pay attention to their own aviation industry.
They are absolutely right in their decision. You don’t wait for a disaster before saying “Had I known”. Prevention always better than cure that could be too late. Black life’s matter too. Why don’t they run that plane from JFK to Heathrow?
Are you saying that passengers should pay attention to their inability to own their own cars? Their life’s don’t matter becos their aviation industry isn’t up to par? Think again.
To think, Delta used to lead the industry in MRO, including for industry rivals!
What does that even mean? youre trying to make an issue where there is no issue.
They run that plane all over the place, inside the US and to "white" European cities. Go to FlightAware and search N195DN. That will show you how misguided your comment is.
What a biased statement. Get the information and FACKS before making such an ignorant comment.
And that’s by far the best Airline in the US… I cannot even imagine how bad are the others
You sound like a paid Delta intern who was ordered to post to social media....like a breathing bot!
Wow given Delta’s decrepit fleet, dubious maintenance, and rash of landing misadventures in the last several years, I’m not sure I’d put my worst enemy on one of their flights. Pair that with Air Chance’s total absence of stick/rudder skills and crew resource management…SkyTeam is really not thriving.
Highly inappropriate. Show some respect to your fellow man and quit throwing around stereotypes.
Delta flies the A350 daily ATL-JNB and will add 3x weekly A350 service ATL-CPT in the fall.
As for South America, ATL-SCL are currently served by A350s as well.
First thing, Delta should be embarrassed of their own actions here and should of grounded this plane for emergency repairs from the start. To continue to make the same mistake over and over again, making it necessary for another country to BAN it from entering its air space, the CEO should resign immediately. Second, Are you actually suggesting the airline should play trial and error with a plane full of passengers? At the potential cost of their lives?
And who’s doing who a favor here? Ask Delta Authorities the revenue they make each day on this route, this aircraft has had this fuel imbalance issue since last April and we still here with it.Good concerns are being raised now for this issue to be addressed, have you ever had the thought of being stuck in the air?Maybe you have some magical wings to fly thousands of miles but we are less fortunate so let them deal with their problems and not portray like Delta is loosing embarking on its route to Accra.
Lol, very catchy for the pocket I guess, just remember it could go sideways and your pockets wouldn’t even live to taste the notes .
I'm not suggesting anything. I'm saying that repairs to aircraft are almost always "trial and error" in situations like this - a failure that is next to impossible to recreate on ground. You fix something as per the troubleshooting guide and then you wait and see if the problem occurs again. If it does, you look at a different possible system and try that instead. And so forth till you get the right one.
Umm. Delta flies the 767 to many, many destinations in Europe. Including this specific aircraft.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N195DN
Good decision on banning the aircraft. Safety always comes first ad it seems like Delta didn't do it's part.
I don't know if what you state is true, and I have no experience in airplane maintenance, but this seems a bit scary to me as an engineer. Usually, when we troubleshoot an issue, we follow a few steps to isolate the problem and identify the root cause. Writing RCAs procedure is something pretty well documented. To be clear, you don't just replace the first system in the list and call it a day. You check all the involved systems that could cause a specific fault, and you measure if the system is behaving according to specs or not. Sure, it sometimes happens that certain issues are not reproducible during the troubleshooting process, but if an issue repeats two times after being fixed according to the published checklist, we run deeper investigations until we find the cause and we update the troubleshooting checklist. And this is the normal process for websites where the worst it could happen is the company losing some money if things go wrong... That these standard engineering processes are not applied on airplanes, where if things go wrong, people die, is troublesome. So I hope you were just simplifying trying to defend Delta...
Yes, banning this specific arcraft is the right step. DL should be aware that pax's safety and security are very important. Even if it means taking out this aircraft and changing it with a safer one. No one wants pax voting with their feet and losing business.
Atlanta native here. Life is SO much better now that we have actually banned all of Delta jets from our lives. We fly Spirit, Frontier and Southwest out of ATL and are happier than ever.
Good for Ghana! While maintenance may not be lax or in violation, the airline attitude of fly older planes without increased testing and inspections ("increased" as in "more thorough") is a focus on money, not reputation or customer service. Maybe I'm biased since I waited yesterday at airport to see if a flight got away (ended up two hour delay).
Good for Ghana as the US FAA authorities are always on other countries cases when it comes to safety and security issues, they always believe themselves to be superior.
I applaud Ghanas Civil Aviation to have the courage to take action such as this .
Really that is the answer you give ? USA FAA always thinking they are superior in their maintenance it has been proven already they are slacking of. So now that another country takes action, you point a finger at them ?
Maybe this is what is needed. Track aircraft that keep failing and disallow them int oa country. Probably a good time for authorities to question airline management and work practices, watch the track records.
Certainly the FAA cannot be trusted to do such things correctly.
It’s Africa. Not normal operating proceedures for most countries but again. ITS AFRICA
You can always spot an ignorant American. In their insecurity, they mistake things like this for cheerleading opportunities.
Saner people from the rest of the world, please don't hold morons like this against the rest of us. Some of us actually do wear shoes.
I mean, just in the past four days it's run:
Friday 26-Aug-2022
Los Angeles Intl - LAX - John F Kennedy Intl - JFK
Thursday 25-Aug-2022
John F Kennedy Intl - JFK - Los Angeles Intl - LAX
Wednesday 24-Aug-2022
Los Angeles Intl - LAX - John F Kennedy Intl - JFK
Wednesday 24-Aug-2022
John F Kennedy Intl - JFK - Los Angeles Intl - LAX
Tuesday 23-Aug-2022
Edinburgh - EDI - John F Kennedy Intl - JFK
Monday 22-Aug-2022
Boston Logan Intl - BOS - Edinburgh - EDI
Monday 22-Aug-2022
General Humberto Delgado Airport - LIS - Boston Logan Intl - BOS
Sunday 21-Aug-2022
Boston Logan Intl - BOS - General Humberto Delgado Airport - LIS
So, I don't think this is the racially motivated thing you think it is...
I can imagine it took a lot of experience, a lot of thought, to raise this from a tarmac in Ghana to an official statement. So let's not denounce the experience or intelligence of the people who went to apparently great lengths to tell the entire world that this aircraft is not airworthy.
I can see the headlines, "Ghana was the only country to ban the doomed plane, while Delta ignored their safety regulators and kept it in the air." A key point of safety is: Which side do YOU want to be on if you recommend a plane is safe to fly? Do you know as much as the ground crew there?
My wife, daughter, and I flew this exact plane on July 31 from New York to Accra. Reading this article makes me thankful we arrived safely; however, I can testify that the inside of the airplane was also in disrepair. My daughter was in economy class. She told me after the flight that the ceiling above her was hanging down and she could see internal workings above. My wife and I had paid for business class tickets. We were highly disappointed in the quality of the cabin. Quite truthfully, I felt we had been overcharged for the experience. The plane had an old feeling. Part of the fixture around my seat was in disrepair. It was so noticeably old that I actually asked a pilot who was walking down the aisle how old the aircraft was. He informed me that it had been built in the 90s. I was surprised that an airline of Delta’s stature would fly such an old aircraft.
Safe than sorry. GARUNTEE there is covert cause to ban only one plane. Do real redearch into the one plane being banned. And passenger not being advised. Hummmm
I agree with them. The FAA has shown in recent times just how unreliable r they are. The 737 max showed the FAA’s true colors. They should be the ones seeing about this since it’s their own country but since they won’t, Ghana is doing what they must to protect themselves. And for all those looking down their noses at Ghana for doing this thinking it’s just a little third world country. Remember that the FAA approved the 737max and only grounded it after the rest of the world did.
I agree with the Ghana authorities. How can they take risks with people life like that.
David, today is 1/28/2024. This same Boeing 767-300 DL156 is still operating flights from New York to Ghana. I just did some research on Delta's website and they are still using this same flight and they actually have it scheduled to fly in 2 hours to Ghana//. It's 10:24pm right now