A Delta Air Lines flight en route to Hawaii was forced to divert due to a technical issue on board on November 28, 2025. As reported by WFAA, Delta flight DL837 was at cruising altitude while flying from Atlanta to Honolulu when the Airbus A330-300 operating the route experienced a technical issue that caused a smoke indication. This led the pilots to perform a diversion to Dallas, where the aircraft parked at the terminal.

Reportedly, an issue with a floor panel heater unit was the culprit behind the smoke. The aircraft diverted to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and was able to taxi to a gate under its own power. Mechanics had a look at the A330 and made repairs, after which passengers reboarded the aircraft. The same plane departed from Dallas to continue the flight to Honolulu.

A Diversion To Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Delta Air Lines flight DL837 is a daily flight from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to Honolulu Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. On November 28, it was being operated by N820NW, an 18-year-old Airbus A330-300. N820NW is equipped with two Pratt & Whitney PW4168A turbofan engines and has a maximum capacity of 282 passengers. This is split between 34 in DeltaOne, 21 in Premium Select, and 227 in economy. On this route, the aircraft would have required three pilots.

According to Flightradar24, DL837 departed from Atlanta at 10:10 am, only 16 minutes behind schedule. The flight reached a cruising altitude of 34,000 ft, but it had only been at altitude for roughly an hour when the flight crew received a smoke indication from the rear of the aircraft. The pilots donned oxygen masks and ended up diverting to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. DL837 landed and taxiied under its own power to Gate E15 at DFW’s Terminal E, where the plane was first boarded by firefighters and later by mechanics.

Simple Flying reached out to Delta Air Lines for more information and was provided with the following statement:

“Due to a mechanical issue, Delta flight 837 from Atlanta (ATL) to Honolulu (HNL) diverted to Dallas Fort-Worth (DFW), following all standard procedures and landing safely without incident. At Delta, nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, and we apologize for the delay in their travel plans.”

Background

• Delta crews reported a potential issue with a floor panel heater unit. Out of an abundance of caution, the fire department boarded the aircraft upon arrival for further inspection.
• Delta teams quickly worked to repair the aircraft, which departed from DFW to HNL about two hours after landing.

The Aftermath Of The Diversion

N820NW remained at Gate E15 while Delta mechanics were making repairs. Reportedly, the issue was a fault with a floor panel heater. The passengers remained at the airport, and curiously enough, were not rebooked onto other flights. Dallas/Fort Worth is only a spoke for Delta, and it may have been challenging to rebook so many passengers onto other Delta flights to Honolulu.

The issue was benign enough that the repairs were completed in a short period of time, and N820NW pushed back from its gate at DFW. After two hours and 17 minutes on the ground, the Airbus A330 pushed back again for a routine departure out of Dallas and proceeded to Honolulu under the same DL837 flight number.

The flight from Dallas to Honolulu took seven hours and 45 minutes. DL837 was scheduled to land in Honolulu at 3:01 pm, but it ended up landing at 5:56 pm, totalling a delay of two hours and 55 minutes. This is a relatively short delay, considering that the aircraft diverted to another airport and was repaired on-site. Passengers likely received minimal compensation, while the departure of the aircraft’s next scheduled flight, DL310 to Detroit, was delayed by two hours and 27 minutes.

Recent Mechanical Issues In The United States

An American Eagle Bombardier CRJ-900 was taxiing to the runway at Philadelphia International Airport on the evening of November 26 when smoke began filling the cabin. An evacuation was performed on the taxiway, and passengers were rebooked onto another flight the following morning. The aircraft involved was repaired and reentered service on November 28.

On November 19, a Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-300ER was operating an overnight flight from Honolulu to Salt Lake City when the aircraft’s number two engine began losing oil in-flight. The crew diverted to Los Angeles in the early morning and was initially met by firefighters, but then taxiied under its own power. Passengers were reaccommodated on other flights, and an Airbus A319 also operated from LAX to Salt Lake City using the same flight number. The aircraft involved was repaired and has since reentered service.

Major carriers like American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have world-class maintenance programs, but airliners are still complex machines that can experience mechanical failures before their next scheduled maintenance visit. Procedures and systems exist to reduce the risk from a failure such as what these flights experienced, and the aircraft were repaired while passengers were reaccommodated. In the case of DL837, the repair resulted in a less-than-three-hour delay.