Delta Air Lines Boston to Rome Flight Makes Emergency Landing Amid Lightning Strike

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BOSTON- On August 4, 2024, an Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines (DL) flight from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport (FCO), Rome was struck by lightning in the air, following this, the crew decided to make an emergency landing back at Boston.

Delta operates daily Flight between Boston and Rome using Airbus A330 aircraft.

Delta Flight Emergency Landing

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a preliminary statement on its Aviation Accidents and Incidents report page and stated:

Delta Air Lines Flight 112 returned to and landed safely at Boston Logan International Airport around 7:20 p.m. local time after the crew reported a lightning strike following departure. The Airbus A330 was headed to Rome, Italy. The FAA will investigate. Further, FAA regulations require that commercial aircraft be designed to withstand lightning strikes.

FAA Statement on Delta DL112 flight Lightning strike incident

According to Flight Radar 24 data, Delta flight DL112 took off from Boston at 10:22 PM UTC. Shortly after takeoff, at around FL160, the flight was struck by lightning. Pilots dumped extra fuel and they made a U-turn back to Boston.

Airbus A330 landed safely back in Boston at 11:20 PM UTC. The aircraft remained airborne for almost an hour. The flight was canceled and the aircraft is still on the ground.

Delta Air Lines spokesperson apologized to passengers and said that they are working to fly passengers to their intended destination as soon as possible.

The flight was operated by Airbus A330-300, registered as N831NW. Further, it is a 7.4-year-old aircraft and is powered by General Electric CF6 engines.

Recently, Japan Airlines (JL) Boeing 737 faced two lightning strikes on April 3, 2024. The incident occurred five minutes after Flight 694 took off from Miyazaki Airport (KMI), heading to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (HND).

Lightning strikes are not rare and aircraft are built to withstand the impact of it. But sometimes, lightning can cause damage to structures, and aircraft need to be inspected immediately.

Inspection after Lightning Strike

Lightning strikes commercial aircraft more than once a year on average. These incidents require immediate inspections upon landing, grounding the plane, and causing unexpected costs.

Aircraft are designed to handle lightning strikes, which often occur when flying through clouds. The lightning typically enters one extremity, travels through the fuselage, and exits at another point.

Current inspection procedures are time-consuming and resource-intensive. They involve:

Towing the aircraft to a hangar
Employing 2-3 engineers
Using heavy equipment like gangways and cherry pickers
Searching for damage as small as a pencil tip
Grounding the aircraft for 8-12 hours

This process puts pressure on engineers to work quickly to avoid flight delays or cancellations. These disruptions cost airlines over $2 billion annually.

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