Delta Air Lines' 'faulty' Boeing 767-300 banned in Ghana
Delta Air Lines currently offers 1 daily flight between the US and Ghana. This service is usually operated by Boeing 767-300 aircraft.
The Boeing 767-300, registration N195DN, of Delta Air Lines, is no longer allowed to operate the New York - Accra route (1 daily flight). This is according to a correspondence from the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), addressed to the American carrier on August 19, 2022. The 24.9 year old aircraft with a seating capacity of 226 (26 business class and 200 economy) has recently suffered the same failure on several occasions.
On 1 August, it was forced to return to the gate at Accra's Kotoka Airport after its crew reported a fuel imbalance in the left main tank. Upon investigation, the GCAA found that the pilots had reported the same problem the day before, when they departed from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Worse, the same aircraft returned to JFK on 25 July, hours after taking off from the same airport, an incident that was widely reported in the press.
Despite these regular incidents, the GCAA claims that Delta Air Lines did not perform thorough maintenance on the aircraft. "Instead, the aircraft was flown several times to the United States, then returned to Accra, and the problem recurred," it says.
In any case, Delta Air Lines seems to have reacted even before receiving the ban from the Ghanaian Authority. According to Flightradar24 data, the US flag carrier has used several other such aircraft to connect the US city with the Ghanaian capital since 14 August. The aircraft has been withdrawn from the Accra service, but continues to be deployed regularly on other international routes of the company, such as Dakar on 17 August.
