Saturday, September 18, 1999

Jet makes emergency landing

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Passengers leave plane through smoke

BY DANA DiFILIPPO, TANYA ALBERT
and KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Firefighters crawl into a Delta flight that made an emergency landing at the Northern Kentucky Greater Cincinnati Airport late Friday. (Craig Ruttle photo) | ZOOM |

        A Delta jetliner carrying 114 passengers and five crew members made an emergency landing Friday night shortly after takeoff from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport after an alarm alerted crew to a possible fire on board.

        Passengers and crew reported the smell of smoke, apparently from a smoldering electrical short in a heating vent on the nose of the plane, an airline spokesman said. The short scorched the insulation, causing smoke in the cabin and cockpit.

        Airline mechanics were checking the plane late Friday.

        Two women were taken to St. Luke West Hospital with minor injuries.

        A 51-year-old woman from Oconomowoc, Wis., and a 58-year-old woman from Lexington, Ky., were expected to be treated and released, said hospital spokeswoman Lee McGinley. One woman was injured getting off the plane; the other complained of miscellaneous aches and pains.

23 DIED AT AIRPORT IN 1983

The last major airline incident at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport also involved electrical problems.     On June 2, 1983, 23 of 46 people died after an Air Canada flight from Dallas to Toronto made an emergency landing at the airport with a fire aboard.     The crew notified Cincinnati after discovering a fire in the lavatory of the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 aircraft, and the plane began experiencing electrical problems.     Smoke filled the cabin during the emergency descent. Crews were unable to put out the fire, which gutted the fuselage.

        The jet, which originated in Cincinnati as Flight 2030, was bound for LaGuardia Airport in New York. It was 28 passengers short of its capacity of 142.

        The flight was scheduled to leave at 7:15 p.m. but was delayed 2¹/₂ hours because of strong winds in New York, Delta spokesman Dan Lewis said. It left the gate at 9:50 p.m. and took off at 10:01 p.m., he added.

        Delta officials said they were able to get passengers still wanting to travel on a specially scheduled flight that was due in New York at 2:15 a.m. today.

        The pilot saw the alarm in the cockpit alerting crew to a fire on board, and he radioed immediately that he was going to land, airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said.

        Mr. Lewis said the plane was in the air only a few minutes before landing.

        Dozens of emergency vehicles from throughout the area raced to the airport as officials awaited the airliner's arrival.

        Rescue crews swarmed the plane even before it stopped, and panicked passengers left the plane on inflatable chutes.

        The McDonnell Douglas MD88 showed no outward damage, but a Delta employee who witnessed its landing noted that the pilot appeared to have stopped in half the normal stopping distance.

        The smoke was dense enough that some passengers had trouble seeing people sitting next to them.

        “It was hazy. It wasn't that thick that you would choke,” said passenger Randy Martin of Mason, who was traveling with wife Patty and sons Nick, 3, and Kyle, 6.

        As the plane descended, the crew turned off all the lights, Mr. Martin said.

        Passengers remained surprisingly calm during the emergency landing, he said.

        “The boys loved the (evacuation) chute,” he added. The Martins decided to postpone their New York trip and returned home to Mason early this morning.

        Kirk Spicer of Middletown, returning with his cousin from Turfway Park, stopped to watch the drama unfold.

        “When the plane landed, there were no lights and he put on his brakes really quick,” he said.

        After the evacuation, Delta personnel comforted shocked passengers and gave them bagged lunches in the airport's Concourse C.

        Eric Coleman, who works at the W.H. Smith bookstore in the airport, said some passengers complained of minor injuries such as sore necks and bumped heads.

        The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will not investigate, Mr. Lewis said.

        “Our No. 1 concern is safety; we take every precaution,” Mr. Lewis said. “If at any point, there's any indication of any sort of mechanical malfunction, the captain can choose to return to the nearest airport.”

       

        Phillip Pina, Amy Higgins, Perry Brothers, Jane Prendergast, Rachel Melcer, Marie McCain and Saundra Amrhein contributed to this report.

       

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