Airbus A320 N330NW

Summary

On 20 November 2022 at about 02:51 local time, a Airbus A320 registered N330NW, operated by Delta Air Lines Inc, was involved in an accident near Red Oak, Iowa, United States. 153 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. No probable cause statement is available for this record.

Date

20 November 2022 at 02:51

Classification

Accident

Location

Red Oak, Iowa, United States

Coordinates

40.9277, -95.3363

Aircraft

Airbus A320

Registration

N330NW

Category

Airplane

Year built

1992

Engines

2

Operator

Delta Air Lines Inc

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Atlanta → Omaha

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Night

NTSB number

DCA23LA067

Nobody was injured.

The NTSB has not published a probable cause for this record. No probable cause statement is present in the source data.

Nothing about the cause is stated here that is not in the source record.

Read the full NTSB narrative

Delta Air Lines flight 2295 struck several birds while descending through 13,000 feet on approach to Eppley Airfield (OMA), Omaha, Nebraska. The bird strike occurred about 34 miles southeast of the airport, near Red Oak, Iowa, at an airspeed of 290 knots. The crew continued the approach and made a normal landing. Weather at the time of the event was night visual conditions. Birds struck the airplane and punctured the fuselage skin in two locations on the left side; one above the cockpit windows and another near the pitot tube (see figure 1). Another bird punctured the skin on the right side of the fuselage below the cockpit window. Damage was evident to the stringers and frames at each location, and the size of the punctures in total exceeded the size of the outflow valve. The damage adversely affected the structural strength and pressurization performance and required a major repair. Figure 1. Photo of two of the bird strikes on the left side of the airplane, indicated by blue circles. (Source: Delta Air Lines) The flight crew described the noise as the strike occurred as being like an “explosion.” The cabin depressurized, and the cockpit door blew open. The captain reported that the wind noise was “extreme” which made communication difficult. Soon after the strike the airplane descended though 10,000 ft and the cabin altitude matched the airplane altitude at about 9,500 ft. The crew declared an emergency, continued the approach to OMA, and landed uneventfully. The species of birds was identified as either Snow Goose or Ross’s Goose (DNA testing could not discriminate between the two) by the Smithsonian Institution Feather Identification Laboratory. According to the FAA, there were no pilot reports of bird activity in the area near the time of the accident.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.