A passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Sacramento to Minneapolis has captured the moment that sparks started flying out of the plane’s left-hand engine after the cabin was rattled by a ‘boom’ shortly after takeoff.
The 10-year-old Boeing 737-900 was still in its initial ascent in the early hours of October 24 when the pilots quickly stopped the climb as they tried to troubleshoot what exactly was going on.
Oct 24 DL2229 engine issue
byu/darthdodd inaviation
Unsurprisingly, the pilots then decided to divert back to Sacramento, where the plane landed without incident around 30 minutes later before Delta pulled the aircraft from service for maintenance work.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that Delta flight DL2229 was forced to return to Sacramento Airport at around 7 am on October 24 due to unspecified “engine issues.”
The aircraft remained on the ground in Sacramento for four days before it returned to service on the morning of October 28.
A spokesperson for Delta Air Lines didn’t provide any further details about the cause of the cause, simply stating that the plane diverted because “the crew received an indication of a mechanical issue.”
In a statement, the airline said: “Customers were re-accommodated on another aircraft, and we apologize for the inconvenience and delay in their travel plans.”
