It has been a rough day for Delta Air Lines in Atlanta after an engine fire required a rapid evacuation of a 757 jet and snowy weather conditions led to a temporary ground stop. Delays and cancellations abound, even as flights have resumed.
Operational Trifecta: A Rough Day For Delta In Atlanta
The morning began with a frantic evacuation of a Delta 757-300 jet bound for Minneapolis over fear the engine had caught fire. The aircraft was traveling at 100 miles per hour when the pilots aborted takeoff. 201 passengers (and six crewmembers) quickly alighted the aircraft into below-freezing weather on the runway at around 9:05 am local time.
What do you do when your flight out of Atlanta has its engine catch fire on take off?
EMERGENCY EVACUATION@Delta – Thankful for the incredible staff and quick exit from the plane. But this was TERRIFYING…I have no words. pic.twitter.com/rSDP7g2UCf
— Bad Bear (@BadBearGamer) January 10, 2025
Per Delta:
“Delta’s flight crew followed established procedures to suspend the takeoff of flight 2668 from Atlanta (ATL) to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) after an indication of an engine issue.”
An airport spokesperson added:
“Four passengers are reporting minor injuries; one was transported, the remaining three were treated on scene.”
The incident, coupled with a rare snowstorm, prompted a ground stop from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Delta departures, which has now been lifted. While planes are moving once again, the snowball effect from the ground stop and poor weather has snarled operations, leading to hundreds of delayed and canceled flights.
According to FlightAware, as of 3:30 pm ET, Delta has delayed or canceled over 800 flights from Atlanta, with airport totals creeping toward quadruple digits:
- 530 cancellations (52% of all flights)
- 294 delays (28% of all flights)
Throughout its network, Delta has delayed 738 flights (24%) and canceled 491 flights (16%).
Delta has issued a travel waiver for Atlanta (and other airports in the region): if your plans are flexible, you can reschedule your travel at no cost (same cabin of service) as long as it commences by January 15, 2025. Other airports covered by this waiver include:
- Asheville, NC (AVL)
- Birmingham, AL (BHM)
- Charlotte, NC (CLT)
- Charlottesville, VA (CHO)
- Chattanooga, TN (CHA)
- Columbia, SC (CAE)
- Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (DFW)
- Dallas, TX (DAL)
- Fayetteville, NC (FAY)
- Greensboro, NC (GSO)
- Greenville, SC (GSP)
- Huntsville, AL (HSV)
- Knoxville, TN (TYS)
- Little Rock, AR (LIT)
- Memphis, TN (MEM)
- Nashville, TN (BNA)
- Norfolk, VA (ORF)
- Raleigh, NC (RDU)
- Richmond, VA (RIC)
- Roanoke, VA (ROA)
- Shreveport, LA (SHV)
If your travel plans are impacted, try to use the Delta app, as wait times to reach an agent via telephone will be poor.
Crazy to think that my family and I were on this exact same flight from ATL to MSP last Friday. Glad everyone came out safely.
Very premium delays
@Matthew – How is your family doing with all these fires? Has your area been affected?
Hi Doug, see here–
https://liveandletsfly.com/los-angeles-wildfires-update/
So, in a real-world senario with modern seat pitch, we get a quick evacuation. This rather deflates the “we need more pitch for safety” camp’s argument.
That would only be true if statistics show more pitch leads to the same, not quicker, evacuations.
But, such data would be hard to obtain, as experimentation necessarily has subjects who know they’re in an experiment.
Even with a fire I’d rather take a Delta 757 over anything AA offers.
My nephew tried escaping Thursday on UA to IAH ( connecting to GIG ) and it was cancelled. They booked him on ATL ORD IAH ( connecting to GIG ) a few hours later, it too was cancelled. So they re-booked him on the same original flight the next day. The flight was due for departure at 11.30.
He arrived at airport from his downtown Atlanta Hotel ( that he paid for ) at 07.00. On Arrival he was met with a waiting time of 338 minutes ( Yes, three hundred thirty eight minutes ) to get through the TSA ID check. I have photographic evidence.
He does have Premium Access but it was closed due to lack of staff ( their words ) so everyone was made to line up in the ice and snow of economy. He finally made it after 4 hours in the line, managed to get on his flight just in time.
When he did online check in the flight was full. When he boarded the aircraft it was less than a third full. The airline waited half hour or so, to allow as many passengers to jump on board as they could. By the time they took off for IAH the flight was half full.
He’s Australian on an Aussie passport. What liability does UA have to him for compensation? He outlaid a new hotel in Atlanta and a cancelled hotel for 1 night in Rio De Janeiro. Can anybody advise on the rules in the USA for this sort of event?
It took us over 5 hours to get out of ATL on Sunday…We needed to de-ice so went to pad and waited for over 2 hours as there was a ground halt because ground radar went out.. No planes were able to move.. We then got de-iced( we probably did not need to do so and the ice had finally melted.. then we waited till we ere told the pilots timed and and going back to the gate….Got to gate and stayed over 2 1/2 hours to await new pilots new food and more fuel…All total we spent 11 hours on that plane…we go a $50 credit and a $12 food voucher!!! SAD Luckily our grand children behaved incredibly through out this endeavor. They are boys 8 and 6 and girl is 2!!We all survived..what a long day