Originally Posted by
BOSavi8tr
I'm only aware of NRT and TLV being the only 744 destinations DL has from JFK. They were clearly making annoucements at B32 for Tokyo-Narita. Not to mention, TLV doesn't leave until evening, making NRT the only afternoon DL 744 departure. TLV leaves at like 11pm.
Hmmm, here is what I believe happened...and I am going off information that is available...
The aircraft you saw on the ground at B32 was N662US which had been there since about 5 AM on 07/27 having just completed TLV - JFK. The aircraft was likely at the gate until shortly before N673US was expected to arrive and N662US was pushed back for maintenance or another reason...but ops decided not to use N662US for DL173 and instead waited for N673US to get in.
As the other poster said, N662US went mechanical and could have been the original aircraft that was to be used for DL173 but that clearly changed and instead N662US was used early early this morning at 5:40 AM for JFK - TLV (5 hours behind schedule).