A Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 was damaged after what was reported as a hard landing in Portugal’s Ponta Delgada on the Azores Islands. While no injuries have been reported, photos shared of the damaged aircraft shows wrinkled skin around the fuselage.
Unfortunately, aircraft do get damaged from time to time. It appears that Delta Air Lines learnt this again yesterday after one of its Boeing 757s was damaged. The aircraft was landing at Ponta Delgada when it is reported to have touched down particularly hard as per The Aviation Herald. Photos of the damage appear to indicate that the aircraft’s structure may have been compromised.
Delta’s flight 414 is the American carrier’s daily scheduled flight from New York to Ponta Delgada. The route is exclusively operated using a Boeing 757 aircraft each day. Typically, the flight takes between four and a half to five hours according to FlightRadar24.com.
On the 18th of August, N543US departed New York’s JFK airport at one minute past midnight. The aircraft had been due to depart at 21:41, representing a two hour and 20-minute delay departing. Four hours and twenty-seven minutes after departing from New York, the flight arrived in Ponta Delgada.
It looks as though the Boeing 757 being used for the flight sustained a fair bit of damage while landing at Ponta Delgada airport. Photos of the incident circulated on social media suggest that the aircraft’s skin buckled at the top just in front of the number two door. Additionally, the bottom of the fuselage appears to have been damaged just behind where the nose gear is located.
Various sources seem to suggest that this type of damage could have occurred from the nose gear coming down onto the runway particularly hard. The force of the nose gear coming down onto the runway is thought to have caused the damage to the aircraft.
A Delta Airlines representative told Simple Flying:
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Delta flight DL414 from New York to PDL sustained damage on arrival into Ponta Delgada on August 18, 2019, which the airline is investigating. Passengers deplaned normally. Customers booked on yesterday’s from Ponta Delgada to New York-JFK are being reaccommodated on an additional flight today. Our scheduled flight is operating as planned. Delta apologizes for any inconvenience caused to our customers.
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It’s impossible to say at this stage whether the aircraft will, or won’t fly again. There is still a large amount of work to be done by the airline. This will include inspecting the damage, in addition to working out whether it is worth having the aircraft fixed.
Despite this, however, many have commented online that the aircraft will have been damaged beyond viable repair. Runway Girl Writer John Walton commented “that thing is beercans”, when commenting on the matter via Twitter.
Simple Flying
