Delta passenger recounts harrowing JFK-bound flight’s emergency landing in remote North Atlantic islands

On Sunday, Ken Elder boarded Delta Flight 127 in Madrid with the serene confidence of a seasoned traveler, unaware his plane would soon be making an emergency landing.

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At 54, Elder, a gay realtor based in Phoenix, Arizona, has seen his share of boarding gates and business-class lounges. But this trip had been something special. He’d planned it months earlier, unwittingly timing his visit to coincide with Madrid Pride. What he thought would be a sun-and-sightseeing tour of Majorca and the Spanish capital turned into an unexpected plunge into the largest Pride celebration he’d ever witnessed. “Madrid was just electric,” Elder told The Advocate. “The people were lovely, the architecture gorgeous. It was incredible.”

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Now, with 10 days of revelry and relaxation behind him, Elder was easing into the cocoon of Delta One (the airline’s premium front-of-plane service), ready to drift off under a comforter. And then there were the nails.

The flight attendant working Elder’s section was, as Elder described him, “a man with long hair pulled into a neat bun, wearing immaculate makeup, and sporting two-and-a-half-inch bejeweled nails that sparkled every time he moved.” Elder was instantly charmed.

“I texted my friends behind me, like, ‘My flight attendant up here has two-and-a-half-inch bejeweled nails. How cool is that?” Elder said. “I love that Delta allows their flight attendants to express themselves like that.”

At that moment, reclining in a fully flat seat and queuing up a movie, Elder felt certain he’d made the right choice splurging on a Delta One ticket for his return to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport via New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

But four hours into the flight, the hum of engines gave way to a shuddering noise.

“There was a thud under the plane,” Elder said. “I could feel it through my back. As someone who flies a lot, I knew it wasn’t turbulence.” Suddenly, the power in Delta One flickered out. Pods froze. Elder lay immobilized, unable to raise his seat. “I was kind of stressed out because I was like, I am not going down in the ocean, laying like I’m in a coffin,” he said. “I need to get seated back up.”

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For 10 minutes, silence reigned in the cabin. Then the same flight attendant, jewels glinting even in the low light, took the intercom, trying to puncture the tension with humor, Elder said. A few moments later, the captain came on, voice measured and calm. The Airbus A330, he explained, had lost one of its engines. They were diverting to the Azores, a scatter of Portuguese volcanic islands in the North Atlantic.

“It was surreal,” Elder said. “I’m not a nervous flyer. I usually fall asleep while we’re taxiing. But when the pilot said we’d lost an engine, I thought, This is happening. I’m on the plane that’s the emergency. And there was this split between the logical part of my brain, which trusted the pilot, and the emotional side that kept thinking, If we lose the second engine, we’re screwed.”

He said a flood of recent aviation headlines made him worry that he could become the next tragic story splashed across news broadcasts.

“There’s been so much in the news lately with aviation mishaps and close calls,” he said. “It really exacerbated the situation. I didn’t want to be another news story of a flight tragedy.” He began texting his family, telling them he loved them. “I was teary-eyed,” he admitted. “People were crying and praying.”

When Flight 127 touched down safely at Lajes Airfield on Terceira Island, emergency vehicles crowded the runway, lights casting long reflections across the tarmac, he said. The passengers disembarked via stairs into the chill Atlantic night at the tiny island airport and faced an unexpected 30-hour layover.

Delta, in a statement to The Advocate, said that “as safety comes before all else at Delta, the flight crew followed procedures to divert to Lajes, Azores (TER) after indication of a mechanical issue with an engine. The flight landed safely, and we sincerely apologize to our customers for their experience and delay in their travels.”

The airline confirmed that Flight 127 carried 282 customers and 13 crew members. Passengers deplaned via stairs and were in the terminal within 30 to 45 minutes of landing, a spokesperson told The Advocate..

For Elder, however, that transition into the terminal was only the beginning of a much longer wait. He said passengers spent nearly four hours stuck in the airport before they were allowed to leave because the small facility was overwhelmed by processing nearly 300 unexpected travelers through immigration.

Yet in the chaos, Elder saw excellence too. He had high praise for the flight crew and captain, whose composure never wavered. “The captain was great, reassuring us that the plane could fly safely on one engine,” he said. “The flight attendants were incredible.”

But the hours that followed tested that faith.

Elder and his travel companions, five friends traveling together, found themselves marooned not merely on an island but in a bureaucratic void. Delta’s customer service staff, he said, seemed utterly unaware of the flight’s emergency landing.

“They kept telling me to talk to a gate agent,” Elder said. “I said, ‘We made an emergency landing on an island in the Atlantic. There’s no gate agent!'”

Delta said customers were contacted directly with apologies and compensation offers, and that both customers and crew were accommodated overnight in local hotels and provided meals. Elder said his group managed to secure the last available rental car and booked hotel rooms on their credit cards.

Later, when Elder checked into the hotel, he discovered that Delta had made arrangements for some passengers,but not for him or his friends. The hotel’s front desk clerk told him that Delta had booked for other passengers from the flight, he said. “They had a whole stack of paper with Delta’s name on it,” Elder said. “So Delta did help some people, but nobody told us. It felt like it was luck of the draw.”

A spokesperson for Delta added that the airline would “respectfully pass on further comment, but we invite the customer to get back to us directly so we can hear more.” Back in the U.S., Elder, who regularly flies, refused to let the story end there.

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Initially, he said, Delta offered him just 3,000 SkyMiles, which he pointed out wouldn’t even cover a seat upgrade. Later, the airline emailed him a flight credit offer as compensation for the ordeal. Elder, still unsettled by the experience, responded that he wanted to check with the U.S. Department of Transportation to fully understand his passenger rights and ensure that any compensation was in line with regulations.

Shortly afterward, he said, Delta replied, telling him he was entitled to €600 under European Union guidelines because his journey originated in the EU. The airline also increased the amount of the flight credit. Elder said he was ultimately satisfied with the final compensation, but he got it only because he advocated for himself.

“I’m a real estate agent, so I thought, OK, we’re in the counteroffer stage," he said. The Department of Transportation did not respond to The Adovocate’s request for comment.

Despite the ordeal, Elder insists he’s not ready to give up on Delta. “[Other airlines aren’t] on par with Delta for me,” he said. “And honestly, it’s not Delta’s fault the engine failed. Things happen. It’s how you respond that matters.”

He added, “It’s shown me that when everything’s going well, Delta is great. But when things aren’t good, maybe not so much.”

He explained why he remains loyal to Delta, despite living in a city where it’s not the primary carrier. “American Airlines has a hub in Phoenix, so it’s easier to get direct flights. But I fly Delta as often as possible,” he said. “The majority of my experience that makes up how I think about an airline is the airport and the frontline people, and Delta consistently takes good care of me.”

He hopes the airline learns from the experience, particularly regarding communication breakdowns in emergencies. “They need to have an alert system so customer service knows what’s going on,” Elder said. “Nobody should be stuck in the middle of the Atlantic with no idea what to do next.”

Through it all, Elder keeps coming back to the same image: the flight attendant whose flamboyant nails first caught his eye in Madrid. “He was the one who tried to lighten the mood when everything went silent,” Elder said. “And when the real emergency hit, he was professional, focused, and completely in charge.”