









Two maintenance workers for Delta Airlines got a surprise plane ride early this morning when the Boeing 737-700 on which they were working veered off a taxiway and down an embankment at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

There were no passengers on board the plane and no one was injured, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The two Delta maintenance workers were conducting routine testing on the aircraft's engines around 5 a.m. when the brakes malfunctioned, causing the plane to move, an airline spokesman said.

"They were testing the aircraft's engine run-up when they encountered some sort of problem with the plane's braking system," Delta spokesman Eric Torbenson told the Associated Press.

The plane reportedly veered off Taxiway E on the east side of the airport and landed in an embankment.

Torbenson told the AP the jet sustained "significant damage."

The runway adjacent to Taxiway E had to be closed to allow the plane to be moved. The Federal Aviation Administration was reporting no flight delays out of Atlanta because of the accident.





