A Delta Air Lines (Delta Connection) Canadair CRJ-900LR that had its tail sheared off in a collision at Atlanta Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport (ATL) in September 2024 has returned to service after undergoing a year-long reconstruction to replace its vertical stabilizer.
The aircraft concerned, operated by Endeavor Air on behalf of Delta Connection, was facing scrapping after the incident involving it and a Delta Airbus A350-900 jet. However, upon further inspection, the airline decided to repair the aircraft rather than write it off and declare it as scrapped.
The incident that saw the CRJ, registered as N302PQ, lose its tail, occurred on September 10, 2024, when the regional jet was holding short of the runway at Atlanta for departure to Lafayette (LFT). Meanwhile, the Airbus A350 was operating a scheduled flight (DL295) to Tokyo on the day of the incident. The widebody jet was taxiing for take-off when its wing tip hit the tail of the CRJ, completely removing it and leaving it lying on its side on the tarmac. The damage assessment classified the damage caused to the CRJ aircraft as a “major structural failure.”
The Tokyo-bound flight had 221 passengers aboard, while the CRJ had 53 passengers on board heading to Lafayette, Louisiana. No one was hurt on either aircraft, although both flights had to be canceled as a result of the collision, with the A350 also suffering wing-tip damage. Fortunately, only one flight attendant suffered minor injuries as a result of the collision.
Two Delta Airlines aircraft were involved in a collision on the taxiway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.
A Delta airlines Airbus A350-941 aircraft (N503DN) clips vertical stabilizer off the Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-900LR plane (N302PQ),… pic.twitter.com/lscFm6T7vu
— FL360aero (@fl360aero) September 10, 2024
After a year of being rebuilt in a hangar at the airport, the aircraft is finally back in the air. Having been extensively and meticulously rebuilt by Delta aircraft engineers instead of being scrapped, the airline has saved itself a valuable airframe while also demonstrating the company’s focus on long-term fleet sustainability, albeit at a no doubt vast cost to the aircraft’s insurers.
Delta’s decision to rebuild rather than write off the jet reflects a growing industry trend to extend aircraft lifecycles through advanced repair technologies that are now available to aircraft mechanics. The Delta said that the decision to repair it was also based on the fact that the plane could still have over 20 years of service life remaining if adequately repaired and certified.
The engineers not only removed the remnants of the previous vertical stabilizer damaged by the A350 but also attached a completely new tail section and conducted detailed airframe and systems inspections before recertification by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
According to FLightradar24, the repaired aircraft then first flew with its new tail on September 20, 2025, conducting a test flight as flight EDV5558. This test flight lasted one hour and 38 minutes. Following the successful completion of the test flight on September 24, 2025, the aircraft was ferried from Atlanta to Macon-Middle Georgia Regional Airport (MCN) in Georgia for further work to prepare the aircraft for its entry back into service with Endeavor Air.
Aviation photographer Brian Uretsky recently captured and posted the first images of the repaired jet back in operation. It can be noted that the new tail was yet to be painted at the time the photo was taken, which may be another reason why it has been transferred to Macon for such work to be performed.
The preliminary findings from the National Transportation Safety Board found that the CRJ regional jet had stopped approximately 56ft (17m) short of the runway threshold, closer than standard holding position requirements. The Airbus A350’s captain, focused on maneuvering traffic to the left, subsequently failed to notice the CRJ on his right, resulting in the tail strike.
Delta Air Lines, along with its partner Endeavor Air, will certainly be pleased to have one of its damaged CRJs back in service. In January 2025, the airline lost another aircraft completely in a landing accident at Toronto-Pearson Airport in Canada, resulting in that aircraft being written off. More recently, on October 2, 2025, two more Endeavor Air CRJs received substantial damage when they collided on a taxiway at New York-La Guardia Airport. The damage to both aircraft is still being assessed, and neither airplane has flown since.
