Passengers held up the ceiling: incident on Delta flight 2417

Delta Flight 2417 became the main news in April 2025 after the ceiling panel collapsed during the flight, forcing passengers to physically hold it up until the plane landed. The incident added to growing concerns about aviation safety, with a string of serious incidents reported in the news since the beginning of the year — including a fatal mid-air collision in January between a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines flight near Washington, as well as a helicopter crash in April into the Hudson River in New York, resulting in the deaths of a Spanish tourist family and the pilot. As videos from Delta Flight began to spread widely on the Internet, public criticism of aircraft maintenance and flight safety only intensified.

Learn more about what happened on board and how Delta responded below.

At the time of publication, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported 315 aviation incidents across the United States in 2025, including 59 that resulted in fatalities.

— Storyful (@Storyful) April 24, 2025