Delta Flight headed to Atlanta struck by lightning, makes emergency landing
Feb 20, 2019, 6:17 am
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,719
Once. A Continental 757, an eastbound redeye, on climbout from SEA after a t-storm had passed over the city. I was in an A seat in F, and nodding off, when there was such a sudden, loud, sharp boom, I thought #1 engine had exploded. Within 60 seconds the flight deck was on the PA calmly confirming we'd been hit. We circled for about 10 minutes while the crew talked to dispatch and did systems checks, then continued on the EWR uneventfully. No safety threat, just unnerving for a minute.
Feb 20, 2019, 6:31 am
#17
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Washington, DC, Chapel Hill, NC (RDU)
Programs: DL Plat (won't hit DM again) 2MM (2.5), HH Gold, PC Gold, Hyatt Plat
Posts: 5,626
Many, many years ago, flying KL NBO-AMS. We were on approach to AMS early in the morning. Boom, bright flash. Took a few minutes (or so it seemed), captain announced the strike and apologized for taking some time to announce because he said they were busy checking things out. And we landed. I’m thinking it was a 767 but might have been 77. Did KL fly 767s?
Long enough ago that KL was allowing flight deck visits. On the AMS-NBO flight, I asked if I could visit and after lunch the purser invited me to come up front. Spent maybe 40 minutes in a jump seat with first 2 pilots, then the third joined us, as we crossed over the north coast of Africa. Too bad you can’t do that any more.
Long enough ago that KL was allowing flight deck visits. On the AMS-NBO flight, I asked if I could visit and after lunch the purser invited me to come up front. Spent maybe 40 minutes in a jump seat with first 2 pilots, then the third joined us, as we crossed over the north coast of Africa. Too bad you can’t do that any more.
Last edited by mot29; Feb 20, 2019 at 6:38 am
Feb 20, 2019, 10:25 am
#18
Join Date: Dec 2016
Programs: Hilton (Diamond), Hyatt (Platinum)
Posts: 47
Chattanooga resident here who was monitoring ATC. There were thunderstorms in the area at the time. Aircraft landed and became disabled on the runway; I did not catch the details. Airport was closed for a bit while aircraft was cleared off of the runway (towed?). Flight schedule has the aircraft departing for Atlanta at 7AM tomorrow. N931DN is the involved aircraft.
Feb 20, 2019, 2:52 pm
#20
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Surprise AZ
Programs: occasional DL/AA flyer, avgeek
Posts: 30
Looks like the damage to the aircraft was not serious as it returned to ATL early this morning as scheduled then did a R/T to MKE and back.
Hello to you as well fellow Chattanoogan.
Hello to you as well fellow Chattanoogan.
Feb 20, 2019, 6:42 pm
#21
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: West of CLE
Programs: Delta DM/3 MM; Hertz PC; National EE; Amtrak GR; Bonvoy Silver; Via Rail Préférence
Posts: 5,383
There was extremely wild weather in the southeast yesterday afternoon and evening.
Our flight from IAD-ATL was the longest such flight I can remember, having flown 803 miles (Delta usually gives you 531 miles on this route). It took 2 hours 2 minutes wheels up to touch down. ATL was experiencing heavy rain when we landed. To avoid the big storm bearing down on the DC area, we flew east of I-95, overhead Gloucester CH, Virginia and Kinston, NC, finally turning west and overlying I-95 near Lumberton NC, then flying toward Macon, GA before getting into the pattern to land westbound at ATL.
Our flight from IAD-ATL was the longest such flight I can remember, having flown 803 miles (Delta usually gives you 531 miles on this route). It took 2 hours 2 minutes wheels up to touch down. ATL was experiencing heavy rain when we landed. To avoid the big storm bearing down on the DC area, we flew east of I-95, overhead Gloucester CH, Virginia and Kinston, NC, finally turning west and overlying I-95 near Lumberton NC, then flying toward Macon, GA before getting into the pattern to land westbound at ATL.
Feb 21, 2019, 5:37 am
#22
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MKE/MSN
Posts: 239
I was one of the 164 onboard this flight! I'm not kidding here. We were west of CHA, the pilots told us about stormy weather in ATL, so they had us make this particular flight pattern. We continued circling around, and then I saw a lightning flash near the left wing, and heard something winding down behind me thinking it was one of the engines, and heard some vibrations. Turns out one of the engines did shut down during flight, but they got it back up and running. Then I thought we'd be fine and land in ATL, but we landed in CHA instead. I looked out the window and saw emergency vehicles and I peaked out to the right and was like "Since when did Atlanta get so small?" and then the captain announced we were in CHA. Nobody was freaking out until we realized we were at another airport. We were able to successfully taxi to the gate. We got off and over half of us just rented a car or had someone pick them up to go to Atlanta. Unfortunately, I was one of the passengers who had a connecting flight.
Last edited by MKEflyer95; Mar 1, 2019 at 6:59 pm