Passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight from Memphis to Atlanta had their travel time more than doubled as a “potent” early spring storm brought the threat of severe thunderstorms and tornados across the Midwest and South over the weekend.
As the National Weather Service and local officials urged tens of thousands of people to be prepared for potentially damaging storms and winds, the pilots of Delta flight DL2778 weren’t taking any chances on Saturday afternoon.
The flight from Atlanta to Memphis took a minor detour to reach its destination while avoiding the large swathe of stormy weather, but by the time the Boeing 717 jet was due to return to Atlanta, the conditions had gotten even worse.
The flight ended up departing Memphis over an hour late on Saturday for what should have been a routine 534 km flight that takes just 45 minutes, flying in a diagonal line between the two cities.
Saturday flight, however, ended up tracking southwards until it almost reached New Orleans before eventually turning north and heading towards Atlanta. The flight time was more than doubled at 1hr 39 minutes, according to data provided by Flight Radar 24.
The popular flight tracking app showed just why the pilots took such an interesting route, with an overlay of weather in the region showing how the plane skirted around a large swathe of severe weather.
Tragically, 36 people are now known to have died in this weekend’s storms, and 380,000 customers remain without power, and electricity companies scramble to fix downed power lines,
As of Sunday afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) no longer has any advisories for the Midwest, but with the storm system now moving southwards, much of Florida is suffering severe air traffic control delays due to thunderstorms moving through the state.
Years ago I was on a NE flight from MEM to ORD. They rushed us on the plane to get ahead of tornadoes. We flew low (you could see the cities) eastward over TN, OH, MI, and then into ORD from the north. It was 2.5 hours and the first half was nonstop bumpy.
Typo, NW (not NE).
Not quite sure why this is even newsworthy. More or less just another, safe, day at the office. I’m all for taking all the time needed to avoid dangerous WX or even a return to origin/trip in vain.