Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 Makes Emergency Landing Due To Smoke Inside The Aircraft

All passengers and crew onboard were safe with no injuries sustained.

On November 1st, a Delta Air Lines flight bound for Los Angeles International Airport made an emergency diversion to Albuquerque International Sunport following the alarming discovery of smoke in the cockpit and passenger cabin and the disappointing performance of one engine. Fortunately, the aircraft landed uneventfully.

What happened?

The incident happened onboard Delta Flight 2864, a routine daily flight from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport, usually operated by the airline’s Boeing 757-200 fleet. Operating the flight was N819DX, an 18-year-old aircraft that had been flying uneventfully before November 1st.

N819DX took off from Atlanta at approximately 13:59, and everything seemed routine as the aircraft gradually climbed to cruising altitude at 36,000 feet. However, around three hours later at 16:16, the aircraft began descending and maintaining lower altitudes. Presumably, the period was when N819DX experienced an engine performance issue, and a smoky odor started to fill the cockpit and passenger cabin.

Upon the startling discovery, the flight crew followed standard procedures by declaring an emergency with air traffic control and was given priority handling to divert N819DX safely to Albuquerque. The aircraft landed at approximately 16:58 and was greeted on the scene by fire and medical personnel.

Fortunately, all 193 passengers and six crew members onboard were safe without any injuries sustained. The flight managed to continue later that day and landed in Los Angeles in the evening, albeit on another aircraft, as Delta highlighted:

“Delta teams worked safely and quickly to get our customers on their way that evening, and we apologize for the delay in their travel plans.”

What happens now?

Delta did not provide the cause or specify the engine performance issue. The cause of the smoky odor and if it was related to the engine problem was also not offered by the airline when prompted for a comment, and the cabin crew had told passengers that it was not a fire that had occurred during the flight.

However, the Skyteam member airline confirmed that experts are currently inspecting every inch of N819DX, as the airline said:

“Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and crew.”

And as with every aircraft incident and accident, the Federal Aviation Administration confirms that it will investigate what happened to N819DX. Hopefully, it is a minor one-time issue and not a problem that could be present in every other Boeing 757s.

Source: Simple Flying