Over the weekend, some Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 passengers had a pretty rough journey from New York to Los Angeles, as the plane had to divert over a mechanical issue, then the emergency slide deployed in an unrelated incident, and then their aircraft got downgraded to a Boeing 737.
In this post:
Delta Boeing 767 diverts to Salt Lake City
This incident happened on Saturday, June 10, 2023, and involves Delta flight DL520 from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX). The flight was operated by a 26-year-old Boeing 767-300 with the registration code N189DN.
As reported by The Aviation Herald, a little over four hours into the flight, while at 38,000 feet, the crew made the decision to divert to Salt Lake City (SLC). This is because there were issues with a backup system’s temperature sensor needed for situations where there’s ice.
The plane landed in Salt Lake City without incident, and passengers were asked to disembark. Eventually the problem with the sensor was fixed, and passengers were asked to once again board the aircraft. Unfortunately they didn’t get very far…
Delta Boeing 767 emergency slide deploys in cabin
Once the flight was ready to depart, one of the aircraft’s emergency slides deployed inside the cabin. This caused a minor injury to a flight attendant, who had to be hospitalized, but has since been released. This incident was completely unrelated to the first, so passengers were just very unlucky here, and had to disembark once again.
It’s not entirely clear what caused the emergency slide to deploy, and in particular to deploy inside the cabin. How exactly does that happen?
For context on how slides work, odds are that when you fly, you’ve heard the crew announce “flight attendants, arm doors for departure and cross check,” and “flight attendants, disarm doors for arrival and cross check.”
These announcements involve arming and disarming of doors. When a plane arrives at a gate, all doors are supposed to be disarmed (meaning that a slide won’t deploy if a door is opened). There’s even cross checking, so that at least two flight attendants check each door. Furthermore, there’s also a visual indicator when a door is armed, which should be a further clue.
Even though there are several systems in place to prevent this, sometimes there will still be errors. What makes this situation even more confusing is how exactly the slide deployed into the interior of the cabin, rather than outside, as it’s supposed to.
Delta swaps Boeing 767 for Boeing 737
At this point the Boeing 767 was most definitely out of service, so Delta got a replacement aircraft to complete the journey. Specifically, Delta substituted a 23-year-old Boeing 737-800 with the registration code N390DA.
The aircraft ended up operating the remaining flight in a flight time of around 90 minutes. It arrived in Los Angeles at 4:54PM, nearly seven hours after the scheduled 10AM arrival. My gosh, talk about quite an aircraft downgrade, and in particular, you can expect that several passengers had to be downgraded to economy.
Of course that’s not the end of the world in the grand scheme of things, but on top of a nearly seven hour delay, it’s not ideal…
Bottom line
Passengers traveling between New York and Los Angeles on a Delta Boeing 767 this past Saturday had quite the unpleasant journey. First their plane diverted to Salt Lake City due to a sensor issue. Then when that was fixed, the plane attempted to depart, but had the emergency slide deploy inside the cabin. Then a replacement 737 was found, which ended up arriving in Los Angeles nearly seven hours behind schedule.
Talk about a rough travel day!
What do you make of this Delta incident?
Salt Lake was a convenient choice also because it is one of Delta's hubs. They should have given refunds or compensation for the downgrades.
The door incident maybe partly due to the 2400 new DL recruits...I have seen some in action lately..The older FA's have their hands full with these new ones....!! They do not seen to pay attention and want to socialize with their buddies..
How did they fit a whole 767 passenger load on a 737-800? Did they need two planes? I can't imagine a 767 being so empty they could fit it on the 737. Seems like there is at least a 50 seat difference there.
My guess would be DL rebooked people whose final destination isn't LAX straight outta SLC.
Old planes
I'm looking forward to comments from Delta's biggest fan declaring this part of their brilliant master strategy, and another thing that proves them to be the best carrier in the Americas.
Probably about how cost effective using a 26 year old plane. Proven by best profitability among the carriers.
But let's save the best and read it from the man himself.
Delta should invest in new planes. Its fleet, like the other Legacy carriers in the US, is worn, dated, sleepy and sad.
DL and UA got jilted by Boing, waiting for them to develop a new mid-market that kept getting canceled.
@Scudder
You mean the one between 737MAX10 and 787-8 or A321XLR and A330-800.
The one that would only serve US carriers on few TATL routes and likely would sell a bit over a hundred at most to barely break even.
Yes blame that on Boeing for spending more money on NMA rather than milking the 737 and 777 cash cow.
Not that I agree with Boeing.
Delta requires bins to be closed, before cabin doors are shut and any arming procedure occurs. In this case, multiple bins were open, thus allowing me to speculate that the boarding door was still open.
Since this was the 2 Left door, I am guessing that this occurred while a catering truck was pulled up to the aircraft, causing the slide to invert and deploy inside of the aircraft.
So on the 767 when the door is opened from the outside handle it will automatically disarm. The electric assist on 1L only raises or lowers to a certain point at that point the interior handle locked the door or unseated depending on whether it was being opened or closed in “Unarmed” operation. In “Armed” mode the door operates with a hydraulic assist mechanism and you don’t want to be near that door. My airline...
So on the 767 when the door is opened from the outside handle it will automatically disarm. The electric assist on 1L only raises or lowers to a certain point at that point the interior handle locked the door or unseated depending on whether it was being opened or closed in “Unarmed” operation. In “Armed” mode the door operates with a hydraulic assist mechanism and you don’t want to be near that door. My airline (not DL) operated the 200/300 models and the only door with an electric assist was 1L (forward left) other door had to be heaved up or down after being locked or unlocked in normal operation. The slide pack had to fall inward instead of outward from the bustle when the door opened. The downward falling of the slide from the bustle triggers the explosive inflation and it will knock anyone in its path across the cabin in this case or across a jetbridge or ramp stand if it’s going outward. I’m having trouble imagining a scenario where it just fell inward and deployed without the door being opened. I’ll guess that it was being opened from the outside while in “Armed” mode and the mechanism that should have disarmed it failed. My second guess is the FA saw the door being opened in Armed mode from the outside and tried to stop the process and lost the battle.
BOEING once again! :-o
It looks like it's the AFT Cabin Left door, which usually is an electric door and if you look CLOSE, the so called slide cover is clearly hanging off the room, meaning that door was opened somehow and it looks like that slide was "ARMED" (ready for flights) strangly MOST bins are still open in the cabin, so that cabin was 100% NOT ready for flight so how on earth...
BOEING once again! :-o
It looks like it's the AFT Cabin Left door, which usually is an electric door and if you look CLOSE, the so called slide cover is clearly hanging off the room, meaning that door was opened somehow and it looks like that slide was "ARMED" (ready for flights) strangly MOST bins are still open in the cabin, so that cabin was 100% NOT ready for flight so how on earth could a slide be ARMED?
Somebody didn't do the homework and pay attention.
THIS is bad enough, but then again. . . it's another BOEING where i see things NOT going as should with a slide.
I stick with my personal opinion, BOEING should only be allowed to built Military planes!
A slide, is one of THE most important things you'll need in any emergency, no matter if on the ground or on water!
I do hope, this incident will be investigated ALL THE WAY, but i'm sure BOEING will find a way to not get all details to the public from FAA. (as usual)
Blaming BOEING for something that was beyond their control seems a bit much for a plane that was built 26 years ago. That's definitely not the original slide that was with the aircraft on delivery. It was likely installed by a DELTA employee during heavy phase maintenance within the last year. So it's a DELTA problem, not a BOEING problem.
If you left BOEING to deliver only military aircraft, then what are you going...
Blaming BOEING for something that was beyond their control seems a bit much for a plane that was built 26 years ago. That's definitely not the original slide that was with the aircraft on delivery. It was likely installed by a DELTA employee during heavy phase maintenance within the last year. So it's a DELTA problem, not a BOEING problem.
If you left BOEING to deliver only military aircraft, then what are you going to do? Order from AIRBUS? They've got their own issues. Perhaps you want to fly the new C919 or go RUSSIAN??
BOEING had nothing to do with this one.