2LT International News

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah: After a panel behind one of its two engines fell off during takeoff, a Delta Air Lines flight taking off from Salt Lake City over the weekend was forced to turn back and land.

The Airbus A330neo jetliner took off to travel to Amsterdam but turned back on the Montana-North Dakota border and landed in Salt Lake City three hours later.

A pylon panel behind the engine on the left wing “detached on takeoff,” according to information on a safety database of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

It was not clear how pilots became aware of the missing panel.

On March 26, Delta said the plane, with 260 passengers and 13 crew members, returned safely after “a reported mechanical issue.”

There were no injuries and the plane taxied to the gate under its own power, the airline added.

It then apologized to customers and said it was working to get them to their destinations as soon as possible.

The incident was at least the third time in three months that a panel has come off a U.S. jetliner. The other two involved Boeing 737s, including the blowout of a door plug from a new Alaska Airlines jetliner over Oregon on January 5.

The two-aisle Airbus jet involved in the most recent incident was built in 2020 and has not flown since the aborted flight, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.