Delta Air Lines
bid farewell to one of its Boeing 767-300ERs last month. After more than 30 years of service, this particular aircraft made a name for itself when one of its emergency slides flew off earlier this year.
The plane was subsequently repaired, and several flights were performed safely after the incident. However, Delta has now decided on its fate as it sits on the ground in San Bernardino, California.
Journey to Southern California
The aircraft is registered as N176DN. According to Planespotters.net, it was ferried from Delta’s hub at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) to San Bernardino International Airport (SBD) on August 31st. FlightAware data shows that the plane was scheduled to depart from ATL at 07:00 EST, but it did not leave until 10:33. About 18 minutes later, it swiftly reached its cruising altitude of 40,000 feet – an altitude that it would not have been capable of reaching if it was a full flight. About three hours later, it was flying over western Arizona and had begun its descent. N176DN landed at SBD at 11:25 PST.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
It appears that Delta had planned to retire the aircraft on August 30th, but the flight was canceled, according to flight data. On that same day, it was ferried from New York as DL9962, which left at 10:46 and arrived at 13:13.
Last passenger flight
The aircraft’s last revenue flight was on August 29th, originating in Los Angeles. The plane operated a redeye journey as DL915, from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). It pushed back from gate 37A at 00:19 – about 15 minutes after its scheduled departure time of 23:55. The aircraft took off from runway 24L at 00:33 and reached its initial cruising altitude of 35,000 feet 20 minutes later. Two hours into the flight, the plane climbed to 37,000 feet and stayed there for about an hour. Around four and a half hours into its journey, the aircraft began its descent, and arrived at JFK at 08:37.
N176DN made headlines this past spring when it was operating as DL520 from JFK to LAX on April 26th. Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft’s right emergency slide was inadvertently inflated and detached itself. The crew safely returned the aircraft to JFK, but the slide had fallen into the waters of Jamaica Bay.
Photo: kamilpetran | Shutterstock
Days later, the slide had washed up near the home of a lawyer who was already suing Boeing – the plane’s manufacturer – over a different incident. Delta later came to the site to retrieve the slide and investigate the incident along with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The aircraft returned to service on May 16th, nearly four weeks after the incident.
33 years old
As one of more than 40 examples in its fleet, N176DN had a long and exclusive tenure with Delta. The Atlanta-based carrier ordered it in September 1988, according to ch-aviation.
Boeing first flew the aircraft in November 1990 and delivered it new to Delta the following month. N176DN had recorded just over 140,000 flight hours across more than 20,300 flight cycles as of May of this year.