Delta Flight Flooded On Approach To San Francisco — Passengers Told To Hold Bags In Their Laps For Landing

On Tuesday night, Delta flight 2986 from Los Angeles to San Francisco began flooding as it approached its destination, and passengers say that flight attendants instructed them to lift bags into their laps for descent. Everyone had to walk through water to get off the aircraft in San Francisco.

The plane arrived at 10:59 p.m. and departed for Atlanta at 6:27 a.m. the next morning – seven and a half hours later – so that’s the window the airline would have had for maintenance and cleaning after what’s being described as a lavatory event.

Now, some passengers saw this as a lavatory water leak – assuming sewage – but I suspect a valve, fitting, or supply line or maybe a sink issue. It may not have been quite as bad as it looked. But the striking things are:

• A flight attendant announced that passengers should hold their bags in their laps for landing.
  
• Passengers ultimately “sloshed” through the water while deplaning.

River coming down the aisle from bathroom
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This naturally gets you “Lakes on a Plane,” “A Delta Runs Through It,” and cringe at all the barefoot passengers onboard.

I actually wonder why there doesn’t appear to have been any attempt to shut off the water. That’s actually something I remember Delta crew doing successfully in 2022 after two lavatories on a Boeing 767 began leaking.

I’m not blaming the crew. It may be that the leak came out late in the approach, and they’d already taken their landing positions, and they decided that protecting the exits and completing the imminent landing took priority. They might have attempted the shutoff and passengers reporting on the incident just weren’t aware.

Far-fetched as it might seem, the reason I don’t love this is that water can penetrate carpeting and floor seams and reach wiring and other components. That happened in the 2022 Delta Boeing 767 incident.

Water from two lavatories backed up because drain heater circuit breakers had been left open after maintenance. The water made it to aileron control components, actually restricting roll control. The crew declared an emergency, descended into warmer air, and regained normal control for landing.

But the other really interesting detail here is the report that a flight attendant announced that passengers should hold bags in their laps. An aircraft is supposed to have bags stowed in a bin or under a passenger’s seat for landing. Passengers actually holding their bags would appear inconsistent with 14 CFR 121.589(c)…

Notably this was a no drink service flight, under new Delta Air Lines cuts, since Los Angeles – San Francisco is less than 350 miles. Fair enough, though they’re less generous than American and United in this regard now. But it’s still striking that there’s no water to drink but a flood of it on the floor.