A Delta Air Lines flight was forced to make an emergency landing and evacuate its passengers via emergency slides after the cabin of the plane filled up with smoke mid-air
Passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight were left in horror as they evacuated the plane using emergency slides after the cabin was filled with smoke.
The Boeing 717-200 was en route to Columbia Metropolitan Airport, South Carolina, but got caught in a scary situation when not long after take off a haze filled the cabin, leading terrified passengers to shield their faces with their clothes.
The flight had to make an unscheduled landing at an Atlanta airport where the 94 travellers, along with two pilots and three flight attendants, made a hasty escape via the slides.
The crew declared an emergency, securing priority help from air traffic control.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said: “Delta Air Lines Flight 876 returned safely to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport around 9 am local time on Monday, February 24, after the crew reported possible smoke in the flightdeck.”
A statement from Delta Airlines wrote: “The flight crew followed procedures to return to Atlanta when a haze inside the aircraft was observed after departure. Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, and we apologise to our customers for the experience.”
Passengers were taken back to the terminal via ground transport and assisted in rebooking on alternative flights, reports the Mirror.
An airline spokesperson told ABC News the ordeal caused a “moderate impact to operations”.
It comes after a spate of recent air travel disasters stateside, including the chilling collision on February 19 – which saw two planes crash into each other at an Arizona airfield. Hefty smog signals rose from the wreckage as first responders swarmed Marana Regional Airport, just outside Tucson.
The airfield workers confirmed the bash happened with both planes packing passengers. Marana’s finest said there was at least one casualty in an “aircraft collision” involving the duelling planes, before spilling that a second life had been lost in an update.
Only days before, on February 17, travellers on a Delta jaunt were left hanging heads down, with fuel streaming down the panes and smog choking the cabin as their craft keeled over in Toronto. All 80 people on the vessel managed to get off the plane and are now out of care, Delta Airlines said.
In a dreadful episode last month, 67 victims were lost when American Airlines Flight 5342 bashed into a military whirlybird and went for a dip in Washington DC’s Potomac River. The fateful flyer, inbound from Wichita, Kansas, carted 60 travellers and a quartet of crew before it knocked into the camo-copter hauling three squaddies on January 29.
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