Investigation opened after section of Delta B737 wing flap falls on driveway  

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has opened an investigation after a section of trailing edge wing flap was found on the driveway of a private home in North Carolina. The section of flap had seemingly detached from a Boeing 737-900ER, which had recently landed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) following the completion of a passenger flight from Atlanta.

Delta Air Lines flight 3247 had departed from Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport at around 23:31 for its hour-long flight to Raleigh-Durham. The flight was being operated by one of the carrier’s 163-strong fleet of Boeing 737-900ERs registered as N940DU. According to reports, the flight was carrying 109 passengers and six crew at the time of the incident.  

The unexpected appearance of a section of flap on a driveway caused the homeowner to call the emergency services via 911. Local reports stated that a call was received by call handlers at around 08:30 on the morning of July 2, 2025, which told of a portion of the wing being found on the driveway. Local police attended the property and later confirmed that the article had indeed come from an aircraft as it prepared to land at the airport. Further investigation soon discovered the source of the part as the Delta Air Lines jet, which had landed safely and without further incident.  

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating after a wing flap from a Delta Air Lines 737 falls onto a Raleigh driveway.Around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Raleigh police officers responded to a home on Banbury Road, near Wade Avenue, where a 911 caller reported the airplane… pic.twitter.com/I5GWqcXmyh— Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) July 3, 2025 “After the aircraft landed safely, it was observed that a portion of the left wing’s trailing edge flap was not in place. Delta is fully supporting retrieval efforts and will cooperate with investigations as nothing is more important than safety,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement to USA Today.

The part was eventually recovered by employees of the airline at around 12:30 on July 2, 2025. There were no injuries sustained by anyone in the aircraft or on the ground following the detachment. A statement from the FAA said the agency is investigating and working to confirm how the part in question became detached from the Delta aircraft in the first place.

According to data obtained from Flightradar24, the aircraft involved in the incident has not flown since the incident and remains on the ground at Raleigh-Durham Airport, presumably awaiting repair. Delta has not yet given any indication as to the cause of the detachment or when this aircraft will return to service.

Delta’s in-house maintenance provider, Delta TechOps, operates a maintenance facility in Raleigh, so it seems likely that N940DU will remain at the airport until it is fixed there, rather than having to be ferried back to Atlanta, where the airline has its main base and a major engineering presence.

According to ch-aviation, the aircraft involved (N940DU) is 12.9 years old, having originally been ordered by Lion Air in 2007. Following a ten-year flying career with that carrier in Indonesia, the aircraft was later acquired by Delta Air Lines in November 2022, with whom it has been operating since. Delta flies the aircraft in a 173-passenger configuration featuring 12 first-class seats and 161 economy-class seats.

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