Originally Posted by misterbean

I don't know any facts about what happened, but here's what I gathered:
1. The operating aircraft was N815NW, which arrived 30m late from BCN-ATL at 4:17pm, 5.5 hours after the scheduled departure of ATL-HNL. Hence, there was certainly an aircraft switch.
2. N810NW arrived from AMS-ATL the day before and was almost certainly the one which was supposed to operate ATL-HNL in the first place.
3. '10 likely went mechanical, and after hours of attempting to fix it, and then realizing '15 was available, DL made the switch.
4. '10 stayed in ATL for another night, and eventually rejoined rotation as ATL-HNL (24 hours later than was originally scheduled)
5. HNL-ATL was subsequently delayed due to the late incoming aircraft.

I don't know why DL didn't sub-in N863DA, the spare 772 that is in ATL and has been used recently for subbing 767 routes. Might be in some maintenance, but it arrived the evening before from JFK and seems like it should have been considered.