Delta Airlines pilots and dispatchers saw no available weather information when they sent the plane to Italy’s harmful Heilstorm in 2023, Italian transport investigators ruled in a report released Thursday.
On July 24, 2023, the Boeing 767 took off from Malpensa Airport in Milan and headed for John F. Kennedy International Airport, where they soon encountered severe turbulence and h.
The “delay in crew decision” to change the flight route, the report concluded.
“It was horrifying,” passenger Stephen Cooley told CNN at the time. “One of the things we heard… there’s a very loud pounding sound on the top of the wing plane.”
The pilots were unable to turn right to get out of the storm due to the Alps, so they turned left, but the plane was already damaged.
“As I began making a left turn, I noticed a sudden crack in the windshield followed by a flash of light,” the assistant officer told investigators.
In addition to the cracked windshield, the plane’s nose had a 30-inch wide hole, dented wings, and part of the engine was damaged. The crew detoured to Rome for an emergency landing.
“Their flights and crew did an amazing job getting us to land,” Cooley said. “We need to wonder why we were allowed to take off in a violent storm.”
The radar satellite imagery would have shown the possibility of encountering “a severe weather phenomenon,” the report says. The pilot’s weather briefing by dispatchers did not include satellite radar images, but they could have access to a tablet in the cockpit before the boarding doors closed.
Air traffic control did not warn hail flights, but the pilots did not ask for it, the report noted.
The Delta Weather Service “may use satellite radar images to predict weather events in advance along planned flight paths,” investigators reported. “This didn’t happen.”
A crew of 12 people, eight cabin crews and 214 passengers were on board.
Since the incident, Delta has repeatedly reiterated the importance of thunderstorms and avoidance in the pilot’s newsletter, with some of the company’s aircraft receiving upgraded weather radars.
“Delta has fully cooperated in this investigation,” the airline said in a statement, thanking the investigators for their expertise. “Though these instances are rare, Delta is committed to making the world’s safest travel mode even safer.”
