On Flight to NYC, an Unplanned Stop on Remote Island

Delta passengers headed from Madrid to New York found themselves making an unexpected stop this week—on a remote island more than 900 miles off Portugal's coast. Flight 127, an Airbus A330, departed Madrid Sunday afternoon but reversed course about four hours into the trip after the crew reported engine trouble.

Aviation A2Z reports a "loud bang" preceded the decision to turn around, and that passengers described the hour-long flight to the island as tense, "with visible distress, crying, and praying in the cabin," per the site. The plane then safely landed at Lajes Airport on Terceira, one of the Azores islands, which is shared with a military base and sees limited commercial flights, reports Business Insider.

About five hours after the emergency landing, Delta dispatched a replacement plane from New York, which eventually delivered the passengers to JFK around 10:22pm Monday—roughly 31 hours after their scheduled arrival. Delta says the crew followed safety procedures in diverting to Lajes, where the aircraft remained parked as of Wednesday. A Delta spokesperson issued an apology for the disruption. This isn't the first time the airline has had to divert to Lajes for mechanical reasons; a similar incident occurred last year on a flight from Ghana, with passengers waiting 12 hours before continuing to New York.