A commercial flight of Delta Airlines (USA) carrying nearly 300 people was forced to make an emergency landing on a remote island in the mid- Atlantic Ocean after encountering an engine failure, causing a transcontinental journey to be interrupted for more than 31 hours.
Flight No. 127 departed from Madrid (Spain) on July 6, with the destination being John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York, USA. However, while flying across the Atlantic, the crew detected a warning signal of a mechanical failure in one of the engines of the Airbus A330.
According to Delta's announcement on July 10, the plane had to urgently change direction and land safely at Lajes airport, located in the Azores Islands ( portugal) - one of the isolated locations in the middle of the ocean.
At that time, there were a total of 282 passengers and 13 crew members on the cargo hold. All have left the plane by foot and were given overnight accommodation at hotels in the area, with meals and accommodation provided, Delta confirmed.
The airline has sent another plane to the Azores to continue its journey to the US. The replacement took off at 9:07 p.m. GMT on July 7 and landed at JFK Airport at 10:36 p.m. ET on the same day, or about 5:29 a.m.
From the original scheduled landing time (before 3:00 p.m. on July 6) to the actual grounding time, the flight was delayed for more than 31 and a half hours - an experience that no one expected for both passengers and airlines.
The flight landed safely and we sincerely apologize to customers for this unfortunate experience and delay, Delta Airlines representative said in a statement.
Although no one was injured, the incident became the focus of attention due to the rare setting when nearly 300 people were "stuck" on an island in the middle of the ocean.
