A Delta Air Lines 767-300 diverted to Rome after encountering a punishing hailstorm upon takeoff from Milan. The damage to the 767 is extensive.
Delta Air Lines 767-300 Flies Into Hailstorm, Diverts To Rome After Severe Damage
On July 24, 2023, DL185 took off from Milan (MXP) enroute to New York (JFK). The flight was operated by a Boeing 767-300 aircraft that is about 26 years old.
During takeoff, the aircraft encountered severe turbulence and hail. The flight crew noticed that the aircraft had sustained some rather serious damage and upon reaching 23,000 feet decided to change course and divert to Rome (FCO).
It is not clear why the aircraft diverted to Rome instead of returning to Milan, though I would imagine the poor weather played a role. Delta flies out of both airports, but Rome is also home to SkyTeam (for now) partner ITA Airways, which flies from Rome to New York three times daily, as does Delta.
Per the Aviation Herald, the aircraft sustained immense damage including:
- cracked windshield
- dents along the leading edges of both wings
- punctures to the right wing
- punctures to both engine spinners
- damage to fan blades
- punctured radome (nose)
I always hesitate before being an armchair pilot, but I think it is reasonable to ask a few questions:
- Could this problem have been avoided?
- Why did it not happen to any other planes departing MXP on Monday?
- Were weather reports carefully reviewed?
The damage looks severe, but whether this aircraft is written off or not will more likely depend upon whether there is any underlying damage. The nose can be replaced (I just saw it a couple of days ago on United…photo below). But just like the human body, the key will be any harm to the underlying organs.
I don’t know if I am alone, but I look up to pilots tremendously, generally find them to be an honorable group of men and women, and of course, fully entrust my life to them without batting an eye. I may not always agree on labor relations, but who can begrudge anyone for wanting the best deal for their time? And yet here, I am not going to praise the pilots for landing the aircraft safely just yet. If they did assume an unreasonable risk by flying into a storm, there should be no praise for minimizing the damage they inflicted.
CONCLUSION
A Delta 767 suffered extensive damage after flying into a hailstorm while departing Milan Malpensa. No injuries were reported, though it is not clear if the aircraft can be saved or not. The most pressing question is why this happened to this particular Delta 767-300 and to other aircraft that departed MXP around that time.
Delta places an outsized emphasis on operating flights on time, sort of like AA several years ago. I’d imagine their threshold for operating in rougher weather is higher than anyone else which is why they were the only ones flying through this mess. Sort of like in everyday situations where you’re only blamed for what you do wrong and rarely praised for what you do right.
It’s a situation where the pilots could have been reprimanded for delaying the flight to wait for weather to pass because no one would have known how bad the hail was unless they flew into it like they did. I’d blame management as equally as the pilots.
That is a reasonable point – we will see.
But who makes that decision? Isn’t the control tower at the airport the one that gives planes the green light to take off and land? Can the pilots make that decision when it is weather related? How about other planes that were there at the same time? Did they hold taking off because of the weather? Just trying to understand how much someone in Atlanta can make a decision to tell pilots in Milan that they need to take off even in rough weather conditions just to keep the schedule moving.
Dispatchers, Airline Meteorologists, plenty of people in their central operations center. Enough people involved that it’ll probably be impossible to assign blame.
But isn’t the control tower at the airport the one that gives the final clearance to take off and lane? If weather was that bad, wouldn’t them override any guidance from the central operations center? It would be interesting to know if other planes from other airlines took off at similar time.
No it’s not, it’s hardly a reasonable point. C’mon man, if you want to have a credible blog people will embrace, learn a bit about the industry.
Pilots will get ZERO kickback for delaying a flight for weather. The technology onboard just isn’t at a level where pilots can remotely predict such an event.
Maybe Delta pilots will not, but have you any idea the amount of pressure that was placed on AA employees during the Parker era in pursuit of D:0?
Matthew, please stop.
My father is a retired 777 Captain from American Airlines and I currently fly for United. I’ve got a pretty good grasp of the industry. The suggestion of discipline vs safety/on time is absolutely ridiculous.
You’re free to believe that. I’m not saying you are wrong.
The reality is that weather radar and previous takeoffs probably showed an easy climb around the storm. Dispatchers, the pilots, and ATC clearly felt it was more than fine. What happened is a microburst or pattern that shifted or developed suddenly. It’s going to be occurring a LOT more with climate change. More and more are discussing the implications of Climate on the future of aviation safety. As advanced as aircraft and systems are now, Mother Nature is not going to be less forgiving in the years to come.
No it isn’t. Reading it in the “newspaper” doesn’t make it fact. In fact, all of these things that have been blamed in alleged “climate change” are usually made up by the papers, not actual hard scientific data.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/tropical-cyclones-now-13-less-frequent-due-to-climate-change/#:~:text=Climate%20change%20has%20driven%20a,specific%20atmospheric%20and%20oceanic%20conditions.
Try not to parrot bs you don’t understand. No offense.
Also, there is no evidence the pilots, or anyone is to blame. Weather is, and can be, very unpredictable. This would be like blaming sully for the bird strike.
That was so easy. I was waiting for someone’s head to explode, lol
It’s funny he uses that source because everything else on their site is about how man made climate change is causing more extreme weather events. He found the one thing that is happening less frequently and posted it like it was some big “gotcha!”
It’s not a “big gotcha”. I use that source because you can’t claim it’s some “evil white wing conspiracy”. The data proves you wrong, and yet it’s “my head” that’s “exploding”. This is the problem with partisans, you can’t ever be truthful about anything.
I took off shortly after this flight on an E190 to Zurich. No issues
This is the second recorded incident at Delta. I am wondering if this is a harbinger of things to come? Are they pushing the envelope through this summer season for profits? Allowing a plane full of passengers to sit on the taxiway causing health issues due to the heat ( NO A/C) is disgusting, there’s a winnable lawsuit waiting to happen.
Mountain storms with the energy from warm moist air meeting cold air creating turbulence. Add the wall of 15k foot mountains trapping the energy and starting convection can make mini super cells in minutes. Large ice forms at 20,000 feet in those cells which matches closely with Delta’s 23.000. They probably had no clue that a tiny valley storm would suddenly shoot up like a bottle rocket. This is my theory, and I have taken this flight thankfully without incident.
Exactly. I think it’s very premature to believe the pilots were somehow at fault here.