Tuesday got off to a tragic start at Atlanta’s international airport after a tire unexpectedly exploded on a Delta Air Lines jet and killed two workers instantly.
The incident took place just after 5 a.m. in a maintenance hangar near the airport’s international terminal, officials said. The plane, a 31-year-old Boeing 757-232, had been grounded since it completed a flight from Las Vegas on Sunday night.
Delta confirmed the deaths in a statement and added that a third worker was injured in the blast. Sources told WSB-TV that the surviving worker was seriously injured.
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“The Delta family is heartbroken at the loss of two team members and the injury of another following an incident this morning,” the airline’s statement said. “We have extended our full support to family members and colleagues during this incredibly difficult time.”
No details about what caused the explosion were released by late Tuesday morning. The incident does not appear to have impacted departures or arrivals at Hartsfield-Jackson, which is Delta’s main hub and is the busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic.
It’s been a rough year for Boeing, which has been marred by a number of high-publicity incidents that have brought its reputation into question.
Boeing’s first signs of trouble in 2024 came in just its second week, when a door plug blew out soon after takeoff on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 flight, ripping off a teenager’s shirt and sending the cabin into chaos.
There was a particularly tumultuous period for the company in March, beginning with a Boeing 737 Max 8 veering off a runway after its landing gear collapsed on March 3. Days later, a wheel fell off a Boeing 777-200 as it took off from San Francisco, crushing cars in a packed airport parking lot below but miraculously not injuring anybody.
A Boeing 777 was forced make an emergency landing on March 11 after hydraulic fluid spewed from its landing gear area, and a United Airlines 737 was grounded after it was discovered that a panel was missing after landing in Oregon. Then, on March 20, a Boeing 737 headed to Atlanta was forced to make an emergency landing in Aruba after an engine blew out on takeoff.
After other eye-popping incidents in April, United said it planned to reduce reliance on Boeing after it lost $124 million in the first quarter of 2024. In a statement, it blamed the bad quarter on Boeing’s gaffes.
John Laughter, the president of Delta TechOps, where Tuesday’s incident occurred, sent a note to his staff after the tragedy that was obtained by Fox 5 Atlanta.
“We are extending our full support to their families at this difficult time and conducting an investigation to determine what happened,” he wrote.
“Please know your safety and wellbeing comes first—always, and that your leaders are here for you. Please continue to take good care of yourself and one another. We’re all in this together, and we’ll get through this by supporting each other.”
