Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Delta A330 Returns to São Paulo After Engine Failure Ignites Fire on Airport Grounds

Investigators are probing whether a bird strike or runway debris caused the rare failure.

Overview

  • Delta Flight DL104 to Atlanta, which took off Sunday night, suffered a left‑engine failure seconds after departure and landed back at Guarulhos.
  • The Airbus A330‑300 carrying 288 people declared an emergency, leveled near 4,500 feet, and returned to the same runway within minutes.
  • Engine fragments fell onto airport property and set a small patch of vegetation on fire, and airport crews paused operations to clear debris.
  • Delta canceled the flight, called it a technical failure in the left engine, and rebooked passengers, with no injuries reported.
  • Brazil’s accident agency CENIPA opened an investigation that will review debris and maintenance records, with early focus on a possible bird strike or foreign‑object ingestion into the Pratt & Whitney PW4168A, a type of uncontained engine failure that is rare but triggers full safety checks.