A Delta Air Lines flight bound for New York JFK had to make an emergency return back to Barcelona following a hail strike causing damage.
Information has been released pertinent to the incident at hand, with images emerging as a result.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Delta Air Lines Flight DL169 – Barcelona to New York…
Delta Air Lines flight DL169, the aircraft involved in the hail strike, is a routine scheduled flight between Barcelona and New York JFK.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was N827NW.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N827NW is a 9.3 year old Airbus A330-300 that was delivered to the airline back in April 2016.
Of the A330-300 variant, Delta Air Lines has 31 of them in their fleet.
Moreover, of that 31, 29 are in active service, with two parked, offering an average fleet age of 16.5 years.
As well as the A330-300, the airline has the following other aircraft in their mainline fleet:
| Aircraft Type | Number in their Fleet |
| Airbus A220-100 | 45 |
| Airbus A220-300 | 33 |
| Airbus A319-100 | 57 |
| Airbus A320-200 | 49 |
| Airbus A321ceo | 127 |
| Airbus A321neo | 77 |
| Airbus A330-200 | 11 |
| Airbus A330-900neo | 36 |
| Airbus A350-900 | 38 |
| Boeing 717-200 | 80 |
| Boeing 737-800 | 77 |
| Boeing 737-900ER | 163 |
| Boeing 757-200 | 90 |
| Boeing 757-300 | 16 |
| Boeing 767-300 | 39 |
| Boeing 767-400 | 21 |
Delta Air Lines flight DL169, which suffered the hail strike, departed Barcelona at 1425 local time on July 12, bound for New York JFK.
As per The Aviation Herald, as the aircraft was climbing out of the Spanish airport, this was when the incident took place.
From there, the aircraft deviated south for some holds to get the incident under control.
Once that happened, the aircraft made a priority landing back into Barcelona, which it did so after 54 minutes in the air, with the New York flight being cancelled as a result.
Aircraft Still Grounded As A Result of the Hail Strike…
Following the hail strike involving Delta Air Lines flight DL169 Barcelona-New York, the Airbus A330-300 remains grounded.
As seen from the image of the damage, this is going to require a replacement nose radome, which is located on the front of the aircraft.
There is no indications as to when this will be completed.
This is also due to the fact that the structure of the aircraft will need to be checked for further damage.
Data from AirNav Radar highlights that the DL169 service is set to go ahead today (July 13), but with a different airframe.
N806NW is understood to be operating this flight later today, but it is unclear whether this will have the stranded passengers onboard or not.
As soon as we have more information on this incident, we will update you accordingly.
Stay tuned to the AviationSource website for more information as it comes in.
