Storming Through KDTW
Rain falls while a Delta Express CRJ-900 lands at Detroit, Michigan
Photos and story by Ken Kula
Detroit, Michigan’s largest airport is undoubtably the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (KDTW). It is home to busy hubs for Delta Air Lines and Spirit Airlines as well as most major U. S. airlines too. The airport has service to most domestic United States airports and a fair number of foreign destinations too. I booked a round trip flight from Boston, Massachusetts (KBOS) to KDTW for early September, 2023 to attend the wedding of my wife’s friend’s daughter in Michigan. As our trip approached, we had some apprehension about our trip happening at all, since Hurricane Lee was aimed at the New England coastline and was forecast to hit around the time we would have been departing. However, the storm slowed its progress and moved east enough where it wouldn’t affect the Boston airport during our Friday or Sunday flights. As time would tell, that was one storm that wouldn’t bother us too much… and I’ll offer these notes and photographs about our trip.
jetBlue A-220-300
Our mount for the flights was a jetBlue Airbus A-220-300 airliner, a new type for me. The two by three seating arrangement offered roomy and comfortable seating, with big windows to view the Great Lakes in the eastern United States and Canada. Spectacularly clear weather was enjoyed on the way out, but cloudy and ultimately rainy weather was endured on the way home, two days later.
We didn’t have much time to spend sightseeing on the way out to the wedding venue, but I did get to spend a few hours before our KDTW departure on Sunday, doing some plane spotting, so these photos were all from our eastbound flight to KBOS. Though overcast, the surfaces were still dry about three hours before our flight boarded at DTW. The aircraft was running about 45 minutes late for our early evening departure, so I had even more time to watch both arrivals and departures.
Air Canada Express/Jazz CRJ-900
Immediately after passing through TSA security, we found our gate just outside of the screening area. Sitting next to a (thankfully) clean window, I had a clear view of departing aircraft almost all afternoon. An Air Canada CRJ-900LR was one of the first photo opportunities I got.
Lufthansa B-787-9
Almost immediately afterwards, a Lufthansa B-787-9, bound for Frankfurt, Germany passed by.
American Airlines Airbus A-319
I remembered flying out from Boston to Detroit many years ago and seeing an American Airlines DC-10 at the DTW airport… but today a much smaller A-319 soon taxied by.
Delta A-350-900
A new Delta A-350-900 soon entered the line to depart, the airline uses it on flights from DTW to several Asian destinations and to Amsterdam too.
Stored Spirit airliners at KDTW
Spirit Airlines operates a mix of A-320ceo (conventional engine) and A-320neo (next generation engine) flights, the -neo is easy to spot with the wider engines under the wing. A group of A-319s are stored at KDTW too, as the type is being phased out for newer A-320s.
Southwest Airlines MAX 8
Southwest Airlines operates their new B-737 MAX 8 jets into KDTW too.
Delta Air Lines B-757-200 in the rain
I was “losing my light” – as the saying goes as the afternoon wore on, and darker clouds soon moved into the area. Without much warning, big rain drops began to dot the tarmac, and the skies opened up as a Delta B-757 came in to land.
Rain at Detroit!
The next arrival, a Delta B-737-800 or -900 went around, although the visibility seemed to be decent. I didn’t see or hear any lightning or thunder out of my window, but maybe wind shear from the heavy rain shower could have caused the missed approach. No arrivals occurred for a few moments but resumed as heavy rain still fell. For the next 15 minutes, it rained rather heavily, before it subsided.
Looking on my weather radar app on my phone, my jetBlue A-220, now in the area, skirted the heavy rain shower as it moved to the north of the airport, just as a Frontier A-320neo arrived. A front must have moved through just about then, with shifting winds. The airport was “turned around” and landings from the opposite end of the runways ensued.
jetBlue A-220-300 inbound to its gate after the rainstorm in Detroit
Finally, my A-220 arrived at the gate, and we packed up our carry-ons and left my window to the KDTW world, as it was. When we got airborne, the angry storm clouds were just off to our east… but soon we broke through the overcast and into bright late-day sunshine.
Airbus A-220 of jetBlue somewhere over Lake Erie
We settled into a quiet 1 1/2-hour flight, until we descended into KBOS. We had just missed Hurricane Lee’s effects when we left Friday but got into some pretty bumpy air on the descent into BOS, especially close to the ground. Boston’s tarmac was dry, unlike DTW’s, which we expected to be in the opposite condition after the hurricane hit (and BOS being just a few feet above sea level). So, we dodged one storm by a day as we left Boston but got hit with heavy rain in Detroit… and winds in Boston a bit later during the weekend. It could have been a lot worse though!
