Featured Map for 7 July 2015:
Hail, N664US! Welcome Back, N671US!

Delta's Summer 747 Flying, the Featured Map several weeks ago, covered the summer flying by Delta's active fleet of 13 Boeing 747-400s. It turns that one of those 747s, N664US (SN 23819 / LN 721) Spirit of Beijing, sustained substantial hail damage five days earlier near Jilin, China while operating DL 159 from Detroit to Seoul. The aircraft is still grounded in Seoul and given its age (over 26 years) and the extent of the damage it is likely that it will be scrapped.

11 days later, Delta flew ten-year newer 747-400 that had been stored at Marana to Minneapolis-St. Paul. After several days, N671US (SN 26477 / LN 1206) was ferried to JFK where it returned to service on DL 48 to Amsterdam. Returning to Atlanta as DL 73, an indication of a fire in an aft cargo caused a diversion to Shannon. No evidence of a fire was found and the aircraft continued to Atlanta the next day.

Today's Featured Map shows the final flights of N664US (red), various ferry flights of N671US (grey), and the first few revenue flights of N671US after its return to service (dark blue).

References and additional information:

• Delta Air Lines
• Planespotters.net
  • Delta Airlines Fleet
  • Delta Airlines Fleet - Boeing 747 - Active
  • Delta Airlines Fleet - Boeing 747 - Stored
• Accident: Delta B744 over China on Jun 17th 2015, hail strike – The Aviation Herald
• Hail pummels Delta 747 over China; NWA's "Spirit of Beijing" may face scrapyard – Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
• Incident: Delta B744 near Shannon on Jul 3rd 2015, cargo smoke indication – The Aviation Herald
• Delta's unretired NWA Boeing 747 makes emergency landing in Ireland – Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
• Featured Map: Delta's Summer 747 Flying
• Featured Map: Delta's 747s

Updates:

• N671US flew SNN-ATL as a revenue flight (DL 9856) with 327 passengers rather than as a ferry flight as originally published – private communication