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Unconfirmed reports are that both ship N501DN as well as N502DN have suffered incidents. One of the brand new Airbus A350s has sustained wing damage after a burst tire on landing. The other ship has been impacted by ground equipment.
How serious and how extensive the damage to either of the brand new jets, set to replace the aging 747’s, is still currently unknown. According to Airliners.net user Concordski this is possibly what happened to one of the jets:
“… hearing from a Delta mechanic that a Delta A350 suffered wing delamination during a tire burst that sent rubber up to the wing during a landing at HSV. The mechanic described the event as similar to the Concorde except the phase was during landing instead of takeoff (also no causing debris and certainly no fire resulting). While tires do burst from time to time, the problem here is that the mechanic is saying that for the composite material that the repair going forward isn’t that clear for the wing which may cause issues for future events.” – Airliners.net
I have also seen chatter about this on a pilots chat board confirming some of the above information. Additionally I have reached out to Delta Corp for comment and will update this post once I know more. – René
UPDATE 1 – 11:30AM 12SEPT17 – Still no word from Delta representatives but it seems after ~2 weeks on the ground N501DN will be flying today and if there were issues they have been repaired.
UPDATE 2 12:30PM 12SEPT17 – I have received the following quote from Morgan Durrant of Delta Air Lines: “Routine wear-and-tear occurs on Delta’s fleet every day and is expertly addressed by Delta’s team of line maintenance professionals at airports across the world. The same minor wear-and-tear occurred on Delta’s A350 last week during test flying and is a day-to-day component of operating a global airline. There is no adverse impact to the aircraft and is flying to Tokyo-Narita today on another test run. There is no delay on Delta’s entry into service work and look forward to the A350’s entry into service on Oct. 30.” – BOLD MINE
I asked for additional information as to what this “wear-and-tear”, on a weeks old brand new aircraft, was and if in fact the wing was impacted at all by blown tires as well as any ground incidents and was told “no further comment“. Personally I feel there is much more to this story but this is all that is being shared from Delta!
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I might skip the inaugural year in addition to the inaugural flight!
@Nathan – That may be pushing it a bit at this point. Let’s get confirmation how bad the damage is before any such moves.
Indeed, wait for notice. Though JAL123 was the result of Boeing failing to properly repair a tailstrike on landing years before it fatally lost control after takeoff, these seemingly minor incidents can lead to much larger problems. Thankfully, that’s the FAA’s job and I trust them to do a thorough job.
If you read the second post in that airwhiners.net thread, you’ll see that this occurred at CVG, not HSV. Thus far, 501 suffered damage to a few different areas of the cabin during it’s 2-week visit to NRT, and 502 suffered a bird strike one day last week. Now this, apparently.
@Matt – Thanks for info on bird strike.
Hey, I don’t want to see the 747s retire. So if there is a silver lining in all of this ..
747 order just around the corner.
@Justin – Don’t we all wish that would be the case! A few 747-8’s would be great in Delta colors and really handing to have around (as we have seen in this past week).
why do I feel like Delta will change equipment on us at the last minute and will allow NO changes, refunds, or cancellations.
Yes we will be upgraded to the new CRJ200 with the in air refueling option!!