A Delta Airlines flight destined for Los Angeles was forced to make an emergency landing in Albuquerque after smoke filled the cabin. See the tense moments from inside the cabin here.
Delta Airlines Flight 2486, a Los Angeles-bound flight that originated in Atlanta on Tuesday was forced to make an emergency landing after smoke filled the cabin.
A passenger from the flight shared their experience on Reddit including a brief clip of the incident. According to the poster’s comment, the flight was roughly halfway over when shouts of “there’s a fire” echoed through the cabin. Indeed, smoke had begun to fill the cabin from what was later determined to be related to a loss of oil pressure in the right engine.
The flight landed safely without further incident or injury to any passengers or crew and was met by a fleet of emergency vehicles. According to FlightAware data the plane landed in Albuquerque around 3:00PM on Tuesday and after a lengthy delay passengers eventually continued on to Los Angeles on a different plane.
“My first in-flight emergency. About half way through the flight during cruise, I hear someone say “something’s on fire!†and looked around to see that yes, indeed, there is smoke in the cabin. Cockpit crew and flight attendants handled it very well. Immediately asked everyone to take their seats and buckle seatbelts, the plane descended pretty quickly, flight attendants get on PA and announce that the pilots know what the issue is and are working checklists, but we should breathe through our clothes (oxygen masks never activated). (Grateful to be wearing my Covid mask!). As you can hear there was a fire alarm tone, but the smoke cleared relatively quickly once the filters had a chance to catch up. Pilot squawked 7700 and got an emergency vector and landing into ABQ. Got on the PA and announced as we got closer to ABQ (once we were at a lower altitude and presumably out of immediate danger) that we had lost all oil pressure in the right engine. Landing was uneventful, with a healthy set of emergency vehicles on hand to do a quick inspection once we landed. We’re still in ABQ, four hours later, but everyone is on the ground and safe. Well done Delta. That being said… about that compensation…”
SuperDaveKY
Additional commenters in the Reddit thread who were tracking the flight noted that the pilots remained extpremely calm and professional during the incident. They also suggested (although we’ve not confirmed this) that this plane may have experienced an engine failure as recently as 2021.
“Was tracking it as soon as I got notified of the 7700 squawk. Listening on frequency, pilots remained calm and professional (as expected), landed safely at ABQ, stopped right after pulling off the runway to have emergency services inspect it, and then taxied to park at the gate. Pilots confirmed no medical emergencies on board as far as they knew and didn’t need any additional assistance. Interestingly enough this same bird had an engine failure in 2021 as well (left hand side that time).”
Skypiglet
The original poster and source of the above video later provided an update on the situation including their compensation from the related incident and a tasty order of chicken sandwiches they all received.
“UPDATE: Delta updated us pretty soon after landing at ABQ that they had dispatched an identical plane from LAX to replace ours. It flew from LAX with no passengers (only the cockpit crew and flight attendants were on board). They even gave us the flight number (9968 if memory serves) so we could track it. The plane arrived about 5 hours after our landing, they loaded us up, and we arrived at LAX at about 9PM PDT (about 6 hours late). On compensation: there was a $15 meal credit available for passengers, but you had to ask for it. They never made an announcement, but if you asked a gate agent they would issue it. In addition, they made a gigantic Chik Fil A order and gave each passenger a (still piping hot) Chik Fil A Chicken Sandwich as they boarded the replacement flight. Most passengers seemed to refuse it (as I’m guessing they’d already eaten… it was about 8PM when we re-boarded). While we were in-flight and before we landed at LAX, I received an email from Delta with news that I had been issued 12500 Delta points. “This is not intended to put a value on your experience but is part of our apology for the inconvenience.†I have to admit it was less compensation than I was expecting, but better than nothing. (For context, I am Gold Medallion and I was on a last-minute purchased full-fare $1750 round trip CVG-LAX.) Are there more points available if I follow up? Let me know if you have any other questions.”
SuperDaveKY
