RedRobin

Dear All,
My parents are/were on DL60 GIG-ATL that seems to be Diverted to POS. flight left gig to atl on 1/1/20.

Can anyone find any info on what happened? mechanical? sick passenger?

thanks in advance,
best.

DCATraveler

I believe this due to a medical issue. It also diverted again at SJU to likely pickup a new crew as the original crew would have timed out getting back to ATL.

lmsalman

non-emergency mechanical issue. Second stop was likely for a crew change.

RedRobin

Thanks both! So, finally I managed to speak with them, and, here's what they said:

- One of the generators (power?) failed and they needed to land.

- Once they landed, they had to wait 2+ hours inside the plane, as, local authorities did not authorize the passengers to leave the plane.

- They were told that the pilots were negotiating to get a new plan to pick them up, but would take another 6 hours until it got there as they are approximately 4 hours away from Atlanta.

- Meanwhile they were trying to have the generator fixed.

- They fixed the generator and will be flying to Puerto Rico because the crew is then "illegal"... need to change crew.

- Will do customs and border control in Puerto Rico. Seems same plane will fly to Atlanta with new crew.

--- just now: was told they are still in Puerto Rico waiting... will get to Atlanta today/tonight still.

Thanks all, Just happy everyone is well.

Best,

flyerCO

Did they end up clearing CBP in PR? Usually CBP would have them continue to ATL and clear there.

jrl767

I'm not familiar with the 763's electrical system architecture, but from what I recall of the 767-200 there's a generator driven by each engine; I believe the APU also powers a smaller generator, and there's a ram air turbine that automatically deploys in the event of multiple generator failures

the "Non-Normal Procedures" section of the flight manual has detailed info for electrical load management with only one main generator, but I can see why the pilots would divert to the nearest suitable airport if the APU generator was placarded inop prior to leaving GIG

RedRobin

I'll find out and update it tomorrow, as in my current timezone is night and I am off to bed... I just wrote what she told me, but, I will ask for specifics...

RedRobin

Thanks for the info... I don't think I will get more in-depth info, but, I really wonder when in the flight they found out the issue, and, why POS and not something still in Brazil?... looking at the flightradar looked uneventful flight until they landed... sucks to have to be delayed for this long... but.. better safe than sorry. Surprised that they managed to fix it in POS so quickly...

HDQDD

I wonder if it was just a "reboot" fix. Yes I'm serious. Many things (even on airplanes) are fixed with a good ole reboot. Would still be logged in the logbook and likely require future action (inspection or some such).

kale73

AmeriJet (cargo airline) has frequent flights out of POS and operates only 767 (cargo variant) aircraft. I’m not at all surprised that there are maintenance techs at POS familiar with this aircraft.

I am surprised that DL had a ‘spare’ 767 crew in SJU.

jrl767

I suspect ATL dispatch and crew scheduling started working on this as soon as the diversion to POS was announced, and they were able to deadhead the relief crew on a scheduled flight to SJU

nystateofmind

Although Delta does not have a hub in SJU, they have multiple daily flights there from ATL and JFK so, with enough advance notice, they can fly in a replacement crew.

ijgordon

I wonder how much they paid in VDB. (Though I guess the flights *to* SJU on 1/1 probably weren't that busy.)

lmsalman

As you noted it's not really known when in the flight the issue came up. I will say that once that flight is north of Brasilia there's really not much of anything, there are definitely diversion airports in case of an emergency but probably nothing with sufficient maintenance facilities that would be capable of fixing the possible problem. As this wasn't an emergency they would have had more flexibility in where to go. The decision to divert to POS involved dozens of factors and decisions made by DL's dispatchers that would go way deeper than anything we can cover in these forums.

flyerCO

Also POS has multiple flights to US and Europe. If the plane couldn't be fixed there's at least options to get people moved on.