Near miss Delta landing in EZE

[Dimitri Cherchenko]

Local Argentine newspaper reports that flight DL101 of Delta damaged a wing (see picture) while trying to land in bad storm in EZE, and ended up lifting again and going to Montevideo.

Un avión de Delta casi se estrella al intentar aterrizar en Ezeiza en medio de la tormenta - lanacion.com * (http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1657259-un-avion-del-delta-casi-se-estrella-al-intentar-aterrizar-en-ezeiza-en-medio-de-la-tormenta)

[A4]

So just how do you damage a slat, mid way along the wing during landing? BIG bird?

[Machinbird]

Strange failure. Looks like something failed at the inboard edge of the slat while it was deployed. Probably ripped off when accelerating on the missed approach.

http://distilleryimage8.ak.instagram.com/b504d87682d511e3bf0c12ae92a57394_8.jpg

[TioPablo]

The weather conditions were not ideal, but I agree with you ... I suspect it was a big ball of ice .. Not a big bird... They seek shelter under that weather...

[jack11111]

Perhaps one of the hinge support legs jammed and pushed right through the slat upon retraction.

[TioPablo]

Perhaps jack1111, but you guys going to EZE during this week be :mad: alert with the weather conditions...

[patowalker]

An article in today's La Nacion suggests the damage was noticed by passengers before the landing was aborted and that cabin crew informed the flight crew.

"Se vieron chispazos en el ala", dijo uno de los pasajeros del avión de Delta - lanacion.com (http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1657471-se-vieron-chispazos-en-el-ala-dijo-uno-de-los-pasajeros-del-avion-de-delta)

[ATC Watcher]

If the Pax/ witness report can be trusted he says :se vieron chispazos y que parte de las chapas del ala cedían por la presión.
which means he saw sparks (when flaps were lowered) and a piece of the slats breaking due to the pressure.

[Charlie_Fox]

It's possible that the storm and the slat damage are not related. We once found similar slat damage on arrival that must have occurred at the previous station. I seem to remember that the cause was put down to maintenance testing the slats while the fuel truck was under the wing.

[patowalker]

Yes, that is more likely. I would imagine that a skin punctured at the previous station would cause sparks as it gave way and flapped against the hinge under pressure once deployed.

[gwillie]

Two tidbits from AV Herald:


"Passengers reported seeing sparks, possibly lightning, and a part flying off the right hand wing."


By Jennifer on Wednesday, Jan 22nd 2014 15:32Z
My dad was on this flight and he saw the part of the wing fly off. There were no injuries. The pilots said it was caused by extreme turbulence and excessive wind shear which was pushing the plane upward thank goodness. This also increased the speed and the pilots had no way of slowing it down. Due to the speed the wing flap, which was sticking up in preparation for landing, was detached. They were able to make it to Uruguay without a problem and they were scheduled to fly back into Buenos Aries once another plane can fly there and pick them up. Delta does not normally fly into Uruguay

[filejw]

Wind Shear with increasing airspeed created flaps overspeed is the word in ATL..

[zerozero]

Wind Shear with increasing airspeed created flaps overspeed is the word in ATL..

Plausible.

[tdracer]

The 21.3 report also blames 'severe turbulence" :confused:.

Personally I wouldn't rule out some sort of preexisting damage.

[A4]

That must have been some overspeed to peel the slat! I agree that it's plausible there was an existing weakness to allow it to fail in such a way.

[Aluminium shuffler]

If none of the other slats are damaged, then it supports a pre-existing or impact damage scenario. It would be a relatively unusual place for a lightning strike, but that could be another factor in the localised nature of the damage.

[daikilo]

I wonder if the presence of the retrofitted winglet could have changed the loadings in that area?

[Lonewolf_50]

What about the other wing, daikilo? ;)

[golfyankeesierra]

Near miss Delta landing in EZE

And what did they nearly miss?

Reminds me of George Carlin "Traveling on the Airlines"
"Near miss, near miss? It's a near hit!"

[deefer dog]

Possibly ice underneath/inside the slat that jammed it up?

[lomapaseo]

perhaps for the tech section. But is this pseudo increase in airspeed in windsheer really an increase in drag load on the slat or is the effect just air-turbulence shaking these bits ?

[MPH]

Looks more like a FOD damage, maybe on landing or even when on T/O from previous?

[daikilo]

<what about the other wing>
Well, maybe the air wasn't 100% uniform and maybe the other side would have failed on the next equivalent occurance. I'm not suggesting this is the cause, just what may be a relevant question.

[Chu Chu]

I'd have thought that an airspeed increase from wind shear (an abrupt increase in head wind) would be real, but short-lived (until the aircraft slows and drag again equals thrust). I have no idea whether the resulting overspeed could be enough to break a slat.