Billy Mumphrey

Yesterday's flight from SLC-DCA (DL760) appears to have diverted three times. First diversion was to DEN. Then after several hours on the ground it looks like they swapped aircraft to continue the flight. But then it diverted again to RIC. Once the flight got in the air again it appears to have been diverted a third time to IAD. By the time the flight landed at IAD, the IAD-DCA leg was cancelled. The flight left SLC at 10am and didn't arrive in DC (at the wrong airport) until after midnight. There were some severe thunderstorms forecast for the DC area last night, so that likely played a role in the last 2 diversions. Curious if any FTers were on the flight and can share any details of this epic journey? I'm sure some passengers just took a rideshare home from IAD, but if you parked at DCA you'd still need to get there to get to your car. Would Delta just pay for taxis in this situation? I'm also wondering if this was the first time Delta ever flew from DEN to RIC.

I was on the return portion of DL760, from DCA to SLC. We were delayed about 3 hours but were lucky by comparison. The FAs didn't know anything about the reason for all the diversions on SLC-DCA because they had been sent on an empty flight from ATL (crew only) to operate what one FA called a "rescue flight" for us.

The Situation

Original SLC to DCA diversion was due to cracked windshield.

formeraa

And, if you think about it, why would the FA's be briefed on why the inbound flight diverted? They just know that they were sent to cover the outbound flight. Based on other comments around here, it seemed that the weather in the mid-Atlantic was problematic.

LikeaGVI

And just another example of DL’s tumble. What is happening to Delta? Why is Ed Bastian still employed with them?

Taz

From what I've experienced over the last month, Delta is in a state of a perpetual, rolling operational meltdown. The least little thing results in a multi-hour delay or cancellation. They're extremely short-staffed all around, and even the normally outstanding ground staff at places like GRR and SRQ have turned surly and unwilling to help. Read thru the "tweets and replies" on their Twitter feed. It's brutal.

I sent in a complaint about the horrendous, incompetent service I was subjected to in SRQ a couple of weeks ago. Crickets from Delta.

DLASflyer

Delta didn't have a great day today but American, Southwest, Alaska, Spirit, Frontier and JetBlue were all far worse for cancellations. Everyone is short staffed. United seems to be faring the best.

PHXflier

A few years ago in a similar weather-caused diversion, Delta had a couple of buses waiting for passengers at IAD, and transported us to DCA.

DCAproducer

As someone who’s DCA-based and has had one diversion to IAD already this year, DL will arrange transportation to DCA *if* the plane doesn’t continue on. At least this is what we were told when I diverted a month or so ago, but they also said, that they still expected to flight that leg, and that if that was the case you were on your own if you got off at IAD. We ended up flying to DCA after a short diversion.

Weather was bad in the DC area Thursday night and winds were high. This likely contributed to the flight terminating at Dulles.

Jeff767

Perhaps because he is running the number 1 airline in the US in virtually every operating statistic.

WillBarrett_68

ah yes, a good CEO would have known that bad weather is not good for business and would have ordered good weather instead, definitely this guy should be fired.

CalebMCO

Perhaps because Delta is predicted to make a profit in 2022 and United and American are not?

Adam1222

Yes, the old Delta wouldn't have allowed there to be thunderstorms and tornadoes in Virginia Thursday night.

RobertS975

The original diversion, the cracked windshield, necessitating an emergency landing in DEN, was the original diverssion. I know Delta well enough to know that the subsequent weather diversions will supercede the mechanical emergency and the entire delay will be ascribed to ATC/weather.

Adam1222

Yes in the old Delta a windshield never cracked.

Sometimes bad things happen in travel and it's not proof of any larger theory.

emma dog

The cracked windshield and diversion made it to nytimes. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/02/u...indshield.html

My favorite line: “They kept coming on saying for everyone to stay calm, to be calm, and we were calm, so being told to stay calm while we were calm made us feel a little panicky,” Ms. Wright told KUTV.