On July 1, 2025, Delta Air Lines flight 3247 — a Boeing 737‑900ER flying from Atlanta to Raleigh-Durham —landed safely, unaware that a piece of the plane had come off. During the post-landing inspection, ground crew found a piece of the left wing trailing-edge flap missing.
The FAA tells CBS News it has determined the part found on a driveway in Raleigh is from that Delta 737-900er. https://t.co/gH3LFCecpF
— Kris Van Cleave (@krisvancleave) July 2, 2025
Around 8:30 a.m. the following morning, a metal object was reported in a driveway in Raleigh. Police responded and identified it as airplane debris. FAA investigators confirmed the piece originated from Delta Flight 3247’s wing flap. The aircraft, registration N940DU, was originally delivered to Indonesia’s Lion air in 2012, joined the Delta fleet in 2023.
The loss of a flap is serious—it’s critical during approach and landing for lift control. However, the plane is certified to land with some flap positions unavailable (pilots adjust speeds and approach profiles to compensate).
Still, unexpected flap separation prompts serious review of maintenance logs, component fatigue, and operational history and Delta will conduct inspections for similar flap attachment points.
Usually it’s just lavatory waste that falls from the sky and ends up in driveways. Sometimes toilet paper…
Delta/Urkel:
“Did I do that?”
*laugh track*
“Toilet paper”…..At least they don’t just dump that overboard as they are flying along…..or do they…? (Chem trails???) I remember being told the trains’ lavatory doors are all locked while stopped at the station because the trains used to just dump their ‘stuff’ out on the tracks as they were moving along…?
Delta’s answer to everything……….. Just Wing It
@WILLIAM MARTIN — I love me some choochoos, but I don’t think modern trains do that anymore (unless, it’s a literal s-hole.)
@1990 – Yes, trains in many countries do still just dump waste on the tracks. Of course, it’s generally older cars that do this but its not at all uncommon. Even some countries in Europe have trains that do this and it’s very common in developing countries.
@AngryFlier — That’s pretty ‘woke’ of you to refer to them as ‘developing’ instead of ‘third-world’ (or ‘s-hole countries,’ as our Dear Leader says). The truly enlightened these days use ‘global south,’ even though plenty of these ‘poor’ and ‘non-white’ (@Walter Barry, am I doing ‘bigotry,’ correctly?) countries are in the northern hemisphere, too. Ah, nuance and semantics. Choo-choo!
Every passenger on a Boeing shouldn’t be called traveller but a survivor
OMG !!! WAIT TILL TIMM DUNN READS THIS !!!!
Lion Air Indonesia (PT Lion Mentari Airlines) again.
@1990 – Looks like it’s time for another visit to your therapist as you’re clearly off your meds with that one. And yes, trains in s-hole countries do dump right on the track (par for the course), but you’ll also find this in the Balkans (which are white, in case you’re keeping intersectional wokeness score).
Would be cool if the property owner could keep the flap. Talk about a premium souvenir!
@AngryFlier — I’m always down for a Balkans reference. Don’t get me started on the FYROM; the one true ‘Macedonia’ is in Greece, after all…
@L737 — Hope your travels are going well. DeltaOne JFK for me soon!
I remember landing on Sabena in Brussels in 1994 and hopping on the train bound for Switzerland at the Central/Main Station…went to the lav on the still idle First Class car and was met with a large sign “DO NOT USE IN STATION”…sure enough, opened the lid and was staring down at the railroad tracks. Gross.
@1990 — You too friend, enjoy! ETA JFK Cap 1 visit so soon, can’t wait #Bodega
@L737 — Woop woop!! ^_^
Minor incident, zero injuries, part falling off a plane is minor and is, as proven in this incident and others little risk to the public. Get a life if this stupidly concerns you.