Although the days are now getting longer as the calendar inches closer to spring and summer, March in North America typically still brings plenty of winter storms - much to the dismay of the aviation industry. The lack of visibility increases the risks of incidents, and today one Delta Air Lines flight became the latest service to be disrupted.

Veering off the taxiway

The flight in question is Delta Air Lines flight 1718, a daily scheduled commercial service from Syracuse Hancock International Airport to New York LaGuardia Airport. Due to the ongoing winter storm, Syracuse Airport has advised airlines of snowy conditions, with temperatures dipping to 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the Syracuse-La Guardia route, Delta Air Lines typically uses the airline's Airbus A220-100 fleet. And on the day of the incident, March 14th, a relatively young two-year-old Airbus with tail number N135DQ was scheduled to operate the route. Five flight crew members and 58 passengers were onboard the narrowbody with the flight scheduled to depart at 06:25.

However, the flight was just one of several that was delayed due to bad weather conditions. But regardless of the unavoidable delay, everything was still routine until approximately 07:35. While taxiing from the gate to the runway for departure, N135DQ veered off one of the taxiways onto the grass.

Delta Air Lines confirmed that only the nose gear had exited the taxiway. The SkyTeam alliance member also said:

"This was not an airplane skidding off a runway. There are no reported injuries, and nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people."

Airport operations remain unaffected

Safety is certainly not leaving the passengers out in a stranded aircraft amidst a snowstorm, so a coordinated response team began around 08:15 to transport the passengers and their luggage back to the terminal building. The flight crew of DL 1718 stayed behind to help with team efforts that are still ongoing to reposition the aircraft.

Delta Air Lines also confirms that it will rebook all passengers to their final destinations and apologizes for the inconvenience caused. As for N135DQ, the young narrowbody will probably be temporarily taken out of service as procedural maintenance checks will be required. The aircraft's remaining flights for today, DL 713 and DL 550, have already been canceled from its schedule.

Since Syracuse Airport remained open during the snowstorm, Delta Air Lines' slight taxiway excursion will certainly not have much of an effect. The airport confirmed that it is still fully operational, and efforts are being made to ensure smooth traffic flow for the other flights as N135DQ is being repositioned from the grass.

Quite an incidental first quarter

Delta Air Lines hasn't been off to the brightest start this year, beginning with a near-miss in January with an American Airlines Boeing 777, then conducting an emergency diversion due to an engine issue in February. And there is today's taxiway excursion in March, which will hopefully be the airline's last unfortunate incident this year.