Delta Air Lines passengers faced a rather frightening incident on Wednesday when a portion of a plane’s wing partially broke off during a flight.
Delta Air Lines Flight 1893 was flying from Orlando International to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Tuesday when passengers noticed that something had partially broken away from the back of the wing in the middle of the flight, thousands of miles above the ground.
Concerningly, this is the second incident of this kind in less than two months, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has launched an investigation.
Passengers Were Afraid
Delta passenger Shanila Arif spoke to CNN about her experience on the flight, admitting that the passengers grew fearful when they noticed the broken portion of the wing after hitting some “bad” turbulence.
“We felt it was bad turbulence. The plane was shaking,” passenger Shanila Arif told CNN. “The lady in front of us opened the window and told us it is broken. I opened the window and got scared.”
Arif told CNN that she was worried that if the piece broke off from the wing completely, it could hit the tail of the aircraft and cause a crash.
Delta Issues a Statement on the Incident
In a statement following the incident, Delta confirmed that a portion of the wing’s flap had partially broken off from the plane.
“It was observed that a portion of the left wing’s flap was not in place,” Delta Air Lines said in a statement. “The aircraft has been taken out of service for maintenance.”
“We apologize to our customers for their experience as nothing is more important than the safety of our people and customers,” the airline added.
Delta has indicated that it will fully cooperate with the FAA investigation.
A Similar Incident Occurred Last Month
Concerningly, this is not the first time that a Delta Air Lines flight has had issues with its flaps breaking off from the wing. In fact, a similar incident occurred just last month.
In early July, Delta Air Lines flight 3247 from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta landed safely at its destination at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, but was missing a flap upon its arrival.
Shortly afterward, a large piece of metal was found in a residential driveway in Raleigh, which the FAA quickly confirmed was from the aircraft.
“Delta Air Lines informed the FAA that an inspection of Flight 3247, after it landed safely Tuesday night at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, revealed part of a wing flap was missing. The FAA determined the part found on a driveway in Raleigh is from that aircraft and is investigating. The Boeing 737-900 departed from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport,” the FAA said in a statement last month.
Delta made it clear at the time that it was fully cooperating with the investigation.
“After the aircraft landed safely, it was observed that a portion of the left wing’s trailing edge flap was not in place,” the airline said in a statement. “Delta is fully supporting retrieval efforts and will cooperate with investigations as nothing is more important than safety.”
No passengers were injured in either incident.
