Delta A320 near Denver on Aug 7th 2015, hail strike
Last Update: March 30, 2017 / 15:20:37 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Aug 7, 2015
Classification
Incident
Airline
Delta Airlines
Flight number
DL-1889
Departure
Boston, United States
Destination
Salt Lake City, United States
Aircraft Registration
N332NW
Aircraft Type
Airbus A320
ICAO Type Designator
A320
On Aug 11th 2016 the NTSB announced, they have opened an investigation into the occurrence.
On Mar 30th 2017 the NTSB released their final report into the incident concluding the probable causes were:
The flight crew's continued flight into a closing gap between areas of thunderstorm activity and their failure to maintain the required lateral separation from the thunderstorms, which resulted in the airplane's encounter with hail and subsequent airplane damage.
Contributing to the incident were the company flight dispatcher's failure to provide complete and timely weather information to the flight crew and the Denver air route traffic controller's failure to provide significant pilot weather report information and alert the pilots of existing and worsening hazardous weather along their flight route, as required by Federal Aviation directives, both of which led to the airplane's encounter with hail.
National Weather Service (NWS) had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the incident area at 21:05z valid until 05:00z, dispatch and the crew was in possession of this information. At 01:33z the NWS issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the area, the aircraft was enroute about 230nm from the area at that time, the information became available to dispatch but was not relayed to the crew.
Minneapolis Center (ZMP) advised the crew of moderate to extreme precipitation along their flight path, they would likely need to deviate around it. Dispatch confirmed they were seeing the weather. At 01:38z dispatch transmitted information to the crew advising there were thunderstorms ahead up to 60,000 feet and recommended the aircraft should fly Thurman, Myton, then back on original route, that route would take them south towards a gap in the developing thunderstorm activity. According to the onboard weather radar a gap appeared to be open there indeed. ZMP advised again of moderate to extreme precipitation 130nm ahead and advised the aircraft should deviate to the north of south. 2 Minutes later the aircraft was handed to Denver Center (ZDV).
At 01:54z the captain of a Southwest Airlines flight, who had just flown through the gap provided a pilot report (PIREP) stating, that the gap was closing and he recommended no-one should follow him through the gap anymore. ZDV did not relay the PIREP to the Delta Flight, which was 50nm from the occurrence location at this time.
At 01:55z the crew of an American Airlines flight, who had crossed the gap in opposite direction, reported a dramatic temperature increase in the area. This PIREP was also not relayed to the incident flight by ZDV.
The occurrence flight also saw a dramatic temperature increase, followed by a rough ride and static discharge, the crew was temporarily unable to hear the radio due to static interference. The captain decided to turn away from the weather, ZDV provided a vector to turn away from the weather, however, when the flight began to turn left the onboard weather radar showed more weather and the captain decided to turn right. The flight began to experience hail, which shattered the outside panes of the forward windows. The crew declared emergency and diverted to Denver.
The NTSB wrote:
The ZMP controller did an excellent job of relaying known weather information to the flight crew. However, the ZDV controller did not.
Specifically, the ZDV controller failed to issue the displayed weather to the flight as required by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Order 7110.65, "Air Traffic Control." The ZDV controller also failed to disseminate significant PIREP information to the incident flight crew as required by FAA Order 7110.65. Further, the company dispatcher who provided the flight crew with the initial and revised preflight weather briefings did not provide adequate weather information to the flight crew because it did not include information about the thunderstorm activity forecast along the flight route, and the dispatcher subsequently failed to provide the flight crew with complete and timely weather information, including weather radar data information, while the flight was en route to the destination airport.
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Aug 7, 2015
Classification
Incident
Airline
Delta Airlines
Flight number
DL-1889
Departure
Boston, United States
Destination
Salt Lake City, United States
Aircraft Registration
N332NW
Aircraft Type
Airbus A320
ICAO Type Designator
A320
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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