Passengers thought they were flying from Amsterdam to Detroit but ended up in Goose Bay, Canada for 21 hours sleeping in military barracks after a mechanical issue forced a Delta Air Lines Airbus A330-300 to divert.
Delta A330-300 Diverts To Goose Bay After Engine Issue
Delta 135 from Amsterdam (AMS) to Detroit (DTW) took off on Sunday, December 12, 2023 on-time carrying 270 passengers onboard. But the flight stopped 1,700 miles away from Detroit Metropolitan Airport after a mechanical issue forced the plane to make a landing in Goose Bay, Canada (YYR).
While Delta has not confirmed the nature of the mechanical issue, multiple passengers have shared that the urgent landing was necessary to de-ice one of the engines.
Oddly, Delta sent a rescue plane from Detroit, but it was unable to take off. Again, we are piecing together a spattering of reports, but it seems that a combination of the crew going “illegal” (unable to operate a flight due to exceeding maximum duty times) coupled with worsening weather conditions trapped the rescue plane in Goose Bay as well.
A second rescue plane was dispatched and the passengers are now back in Detroit after spending 21 hours in Goose Bay. A small military town, Goose Bay, lacks the hotel infrastructure necessary to house 270 passengers but did put up Delta passengers in military barracks.
A Delta Airlines flight carrying 270 people to Detroit was diverted to a military base in Goose Bay, Canada over the weekend due to a mechanical issue, leaving passengers stranded onboard for hours. pic.twitter.com/ifPrPUL93I
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) December 12, 2023
https://twitter.com/_dreamcats/status/1734109305429692861?s=20
Trevor did a great job of keeping everyone informed of what was going on:
Delta did not provide many additional details:
“Crew duty times have been impacted due to weather and runway conditions at the Goose Bay airport causing the airport to suspend operations. We apologize to customers for this inconvenience as we continue to work to make them comfortable.”
It is not clear if there is any link, but this route transitions from an older A330 to a newer A350 later this week and for the foreseeable future. Mechanical issues are less likely on more modern aircraft…
CONCLUSION
Delta passengers found themselves stranded for over a day in a remote Canadian town after a mechanical issue onboard DL135. It sounds like the crew issues plus weather issues created a perfect storm to lengthen the delay, but all passengers are now safely back at home with a great story to tell for years to come.
image: Delta
Crew duty times are ridiculous concept when facing an issue like this. The various pilots associations and unions as well as airline management could lobby for emergency exemptions based on these type of situations but of course they are busy not making things better for passengers. A 2.5 hour flight becomes an overnight because of arbitrary rules that don’t make anyone safer.
Hey Matt
Minor quibble but it was DL135, not dl145.
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL135/history/20231210/1210Z/EHAM/CYYR
Hindsight is 20/20 and the pilot and dispatch had better data. I get that. I’ve heard on other sites that BGR had some icing issues but I’m not sure why they chose yyr when Moncton or Halifax had better facilities and were closer to divert. The plane was roughly over YGP when it did a 180 turn to go to YYR.
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=ygp-yyr;+ygp-yul;+ygp-yqb;+ygp-bgr;+ygp-yhz;+ygp-yqm
Thanks!
I guess my links in my previous comment caused the comment to be deleted
But it was dl135, Matt
I’m curious why it diverted to YYR when BGR, Moncton, Halifax and Quebec City were all closer than yyr and pretty obviously better diversion points than a military base. But the pilot and dispatch obviously had better data at the time.
I read on another forum that the lack of anti-icing in one of the engines played a significant role in where they diverted.
yeah. I read that about BGR and I totally get that I certainly didn’t have the data that day but did wonder if that same issue was hitting all major closer airports like Moncton, YQB, and Halifax, etc.
But again… I don’t have the data and the pilots are certainly better equipped to make that decision than me sitting at my laptop.
oops. Double post by me. I guess my computer was acting up this morning. Sorry Matt!
What a boring diversion to Goose. I’d far prefer Gander.
IF memory serves me correctly, back in the days of the DC-6 or DC-7 (or maybe both) Goose Bay was a refueling stop for trans-Atlantic commercial flights. I admit that I may have it confused with Gander.
For Robert Smith – You are right, In those DC-6 and DC-7 days, and other aircraft of that era, Goose Bay and Gander were popular refueling stops.
One aircraft however didn’t need to stop at these airports, and that was the Bristol Britannia. El Al had a classic advertisement boasting about their Brits that went ‘No Goose, No Gander’.
Military barracks are still better than the hotels most airlines provide during irrops.