Passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight from Jacksonville, Florida, experienced a hairy landing on Sunday morning as the wing of their small regional jet struck the runway as it touched down, sending sparks flying and forcing the pilots to perform a go-around.
The incident occurred on the same type of plane that flipped over as it landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport last month and was operated by the same company – Endeavor Air, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines operating regional flights branded as Delta Connection.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Delta flight DL4814 was coming into land after an otherwise uneventful two-hour flight from Jacksonville when the left wing of the aircraft “struck” the runway.
After the wing hit the tarmac, the pilots successfully performed a so-called ‘go-around’ and climbed back up to around 4,000 feet before looping back around Manhattan and Yonkers before lining up for a second approach at LaGuardia and landing without any further incident.
The FAA reported no injuries amongst any of the passengers or crew onboard the Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft, which has capacity for up to 76 customers, along with two pilots and two flight attendants.
After the pilots performed the go-around, an air traffic controller asked the crew: “Somebody saw some sparks from one of your wings; you guys feel anything?” One of the pilots responded: “We didn’t, but we’ll check it.”
Although the incident didn’t have any impact on operations at LaGuardia, the airline has been forced to take the aircraft out of service for several days. Delta says the plane is expected to return to service on Thursday.
Unfortunately, Delta hasn’t had much luck with its Bombardier CRJ’s over the last few months.
Last September, the tailfin of another Delta Connection CRJ-900 was sliced off by a passing Delta Airbus A350 as it taxied past the smaller regional jet at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport.
A preliminary accident report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) revealed that the extraordinary accident could have been caused by the pilots of the smaller airplane stopping too short of the runway.
The final report into the incident is, however, still in the works.
In the wake of the crash landing of another CRJ-900 operated by Endeavor Air in Toronto in February, Delta said it would offer an initial cash payment of $30,000 as a goodwill gesture with no strings attached to all 76 passengers onboard the wrecked plane.
Delta is already facing at least two lawsuits stemming from the crash, including one from a passenger who claims to have been drenched in jet fuel as he hung upside down, saved only by his seatbelt that kept him suspended in the air.
The Atlanta-based carrier has been forced to deny rumors about the pilots at the controls of flight 4819, refuting claims about the experience of the two crew members at the controls of the plane.
