Major Bird Strike Hit Delta NBA Charter Flight Early This Morning

Delta flight DL8935 — a charter for the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder — flew late last night from Minneapolis to Chicago Midway. It suffered a bird strike damaging the Boeing 757-200’s nose cone on arrival. And the basketball players onboard were super-confused.

Several players shared the aircraft damage through social media, though NBA players don’t make the best aviation geeks — they seem genuinely stumped by what happened.

One team member – Steven Adams – even sought NASA’s help figuring out what happened.

While when player Josh Huestis tweets, a genius speaks.

These players will be matched up against the Chicago Bulls tonight.

It was just Thursday when another Delta 757-200 suffered a bird strike on landing. Flight DL1795 from Atlanta was approaching Salt lake City runway 34 Right. An engine took in a bird, stalled, and recovered and the plane landed safely.

Meanwhile also on Thursday an American Airlines A321 from Charlotte to Orlando sustained nose cone damage from a bird strike as well.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. article says “encountered a bird when it was landing”. Operative words are “when it was landing”. Why do people start talking about hitting something at 30,000 ft. Focus on what is written.

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