Passengers were praying and even tried to text family members moments before a Delta Air Lines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in North Carolina.
“After we heard the boom we just saw all this smoke come up into the cabin, and that’s when we really started freaking out,” passenger Avery Porch told CNN affiliate WMAR. “It started slowing down a little bit, it started getting hot (and) air cut off.”
Nearly 150 passengers on Delta Flight 1425 were headed from Atlanta to Baltimore on Monday when one of the aircraft’s engines had a problem, the airline said.
A video recorded by a passenger shows how a metal nose cone was bouncing inside the engine as the aircraft was high in the air.
Passengers said they were more than an hour into the flight when the captain told them they were planning an emergency landing.
“I just pulled out my phone and I knew I didn’t have service but I just texted my mom … I love you,” Porch’s boyfriend, Tyler Kreuger, told WMAR.
The MD-88 aircraft landed safely about 2:20 p.m. at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, a spokesperson with the Federal Aviation Administration said.
After the landing, the passengers were booked in alternate flights to Baltimore. Delta said the aircraft’s engine has been replaced and the airplane is expected to return to service Wednesday morning.
The airline’s maintenance team in Atlanta is expected to evaluate the damaged part.
Recent Aircraft Incident
A fire aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight headed to London forced the plane to make an emergency landing in Boston on July 4.
Passengers smelled smoke coming from the first class cabin “not even 30 minutes” after the plane departed John F. Kennedy International Airport around 7:30 p.m., said Cory Tanner, 28, who was aboard the flight.
The crew announced the aircraft would make an emergency landing in Boston’s Logan International Airport.
Massachusetts State Police said in a news release that the crew extinguished the fire, which a preliminary investigation says probably started with a phone charger that ignited in a passenger seat.
“Our cabin crew are trained to a high standard and acted quickly to deal with this situation,” the airline said.
Before the passengers deplaned, firefighters inspected the fire. “It was oddly calm,” Tanner said. “There was no big commotion.”
For people asking. Was told there was a fire and we would have an emergency landing shortly. Everyone could smell the smoke but was not told what the problem was until we landed. Once we landed all we were told was, there is a fire in first class. pic.twitter.com/R1dJBrcX6s
— Cory Tanner (@Ctannerweb) July 5, 2019
All 217 passengers on Flight 138 from New York as well as the crew were safely evacuated after landing. One passenger refused treatment for a smoke-related complaint.
— Cory Tanner (@Ctannerweb) July 5, 2019
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
