Belin what a bummer: Delta needs three A330s to take 270 passengers from Amsterdam to Detroit
At one point, on the runway of Goose Bay Airport, there were the beauty of three Airbus A330-300s in the colors of [...]
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At one point, on the track of theGoose Bay Airport, there were a beauty of three Airbus A330-300s in Delta Airlines colors. No, the location of the Labrador, Canada, is not the new hub of the American company. But it did need the three A330s to complete the the ill-fated DL 135 flight between Amsterdam and Detroit.
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It all started Sunday, December 10 at the airport in Amsterdam Schipol, where theA330-300 (brands N811NW, received by the company 18 years ago when it absorbed Northwest Airlines) is Took off for Detroit shortly after 1:30 p.m., with Expected arrival in the city of Michigan at 3:55 p.m..
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While flying over Gaspé Bay (a stretch of sea near the St. Lawrence River estuary in northeastern Canada), the crew became aware of a technical problem with the Wing surface de-icing mechanism and preferred to reverse course to nearby Goose Bay (which until the 1950s was a mandatory stop, along with Shannon in Ireland, for all flights operating between Europe and North America).
The landing took place at 3:20 p.m. local time. Shortly thereafter, the weather in Goose Bay deteriorated significantly and the crew realized that they would not be able to restart even if the fault had been repaired, because it would have Exceeded the statutory limit before mandatory rest.
At that point, Delta has shipped a second A330-300 to Goose Bay. to retrieve the 270 passengers stranded in Labrador and bring them to their destination. The plane, which took off from Detroit at 7:30 p.m., landed in Goose Bay at 10:50 p.m. But once on the ground (and herein lies the comical part). it turned out that one of the pilots would have exceeded the legal limit of consecutive hours on duty had he departed for Detroit that same evening.
At that point, after several hours spent aboard the first A330, the 270 unfortunate passengers were transferred to a place to spend the night and be refreshed. But Goose Bay is neither a big city nor a tourist resort. And the only place the local authorities have managed to settle everyone, without dispersing them to dozens of small hotels in and around the city, have been some former military barracks.
As the news went viral on social media, Delta ran for cover by shipping a third A330-300 to Labrador. Taking off, also from Detroit, just before 8 a.m. Monday morning, the plane landed in Goose Bay, with a crew able to finally get everyone to their destination, at 11:15 a.m. local time. Shortly after 4 p.m. it turned around with the 270 passengers, Whose odyssey ended in Detroit around 7 p.m., that is. 27 hours after the originally scheduled time.