Could you imagine being forced to spend a night onboard an aircraft while it’s simply parked at an airport? That’s exactly what happened to passengers on two Delta flights on Thursday night, into Friday morning. This sounds decidedly un-premium!
Two Delta flights divert, trap passengers for night
On the night of Thursday, April 10, 2025, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) dealt with some bad weather, including thunderstorms and strong winds, which had major impacts on airline operations. Arguably, two flights had especially unfortunate outcomes:
- Delta flight DL1828 from Los Cabos (SJD) to Atlanta (ATL) was scheduled to depart at 2:10PM and arrive at 8:58PM, and was operated by a Boeing 737-900
- Delta flight DL599 from Mexico City (MEX) to Atlanta (ATL) was scheduled to depart at 3:30PM and arrive at 9:00PM, and was operated by a Boeing 737-800
Due to bad weather in Atlanta, both aircraft ended up having to divert to Montgomery (MGM), 147 miles form Atlanta. The flight from Los Cabos landed at 10:20PM, while the flight from Mexico City landed at 10:29PM. Both aircraft did quite a bit of circling before diverting, but conditions didn’t improve.
Once on the ground, conditions in Atlanta still weren’t good, and eventually the crews timed out. So the flights were basically canceled, but there was one issue… the airport doesn’t have a US Customs & Border Protection (CBP) facility, so since these were arriving international passengers, they couldn’t actually deplane.
As a result, all passengers and the crews had to spend the entire night on the two aircraft, until around 5:30AM, without any additional food or drinks, beyond what was onboard. At that point, the airport authority set up a restricted area within the terminal, where passengers could pass some time.
Since the crews had timed out, Delta of course had to fly in replacement crews to carry these passengers, leading to a significant additional delay. For example, in the end, the Mexico City flight ended up taking off at 11:13AM and arriving in Atlanta at 12:45PM, around 16 hours behind schedule. It’s rough to think that passengers had to spend that entire time either on the plane or in the terminal.
Could Delta have handled this situation differently?
Airline operations are of course incredibly complex, and there are so many factors that have to be considered, and so many curveballs. So of course hindsight is 20/20, and it’s clear that at least in retrospect, this wasn’t an ideal outcome.
When you divert due to weather, the priority is to get the plane on the ground safely. Presumably the plan was to continue the same night to Atlanta, and the goal was just to refuel and wait out the weather. But that’s not how things worked out.
Many people are understandably wondering why the airline didn’t instead divert to another airport with a CBP facility. That’s a fair question to ask, but at the same time, the initial plan presumably wasn’t to actually disembark passengers there, but rather to just refuel and continue.
Another fair question is why the airport authority in Montgomery couldn’t open up a blocked off area of the terminal for passengers earlier, like late at night, rather than in the morning. That’s also a fair question, and I suspect it comes down to Montgomery being a tiny airport, not having much staffing overnight, and it probably taking a lot of time before someone in a position of authority could authorize it.
The end result, though, sounds incredibly unpleasant. I mean, passengers had to spend 17 consecutive hours (or even more) on a 737, only to then be left into a gate area for nearly six hours, before actually being flown to their destination.
Bottom line
Two Delta Boeing 737s flying from Mexico to Atlanta on Thursday evening had to divert to Montgomery, after bad weather in Atlanta prevented landing there. While the initial plan was just to refuel there, unfortunately this became a bit of a mess, after it was decided that the flight couldn’t be completed.
Since Montgomery is a tiny airport and doesn’t have an immigration facility, passengers were forced to spend the night onboard the aircraft. In the morning, an area of the terminal was blocked off for them. A replacement crew was eventually found, and they ended up making it to Atlanta in the early afternoon, many hours behind schedule.
What do you make of these Delta diversions?
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