Report says thick smoke filled the cabin of a Delta plane that took off from Atlanta in February

2 weeks ago 7

Smoke that filled the compartment of a Delta formation arsenic it took disconnected from the Atlanta airdrome successful February was truthful heavy the pb formation attendant had occupation seeing past the archetypal enactment of passengers and the pilots donned oxygen masks arsenic a precaution

ByJOSH FUNK Associated Press

The smoke that filled the cabin of a Delta formation arsenic it took disconnected from the Atlanta airdrome successful February was truthful heavy that the pb formation attendant had occupation seeing past the archetypal enactment of passengers and the pilots donned oxygen masks arsenic a precaution.

The National Transportation Safety Board said successful a preliminary report Wednesday that the level rapidly returned to the airdrome connected the greeting of Feb. 24 and evacuated each 99 radical aboard. Two radical sustained insignificant injuries during the evacuation, but nary 1 was wounded by the smoke.

Initially, the hose described the incidental arsenic conscionable a haze wrong the Boeing 717 aircraft. A Delta spokesperson said helium couldn't remark during the NTSB's ongoing probe that the hose is cooperating with.

The formation attendants reported that the fume began adjacent 1 of the doors successful the beforehand of the level earlier it besides started coming retired of each the vents passim the plane, according to the report. The formation attendants tried contacting the pilots but initially couldn't scope them due to the fact that they were focused connected exigency procedures and flying the plane.

The formation attendants assured passengers they were trained for the concern and asked them to stay calm.

Shortly aft the fume appeared, the NTSB said, the pilots got a debased lipid unit alarm for the close engine, truthful they unopen it down arsenic they were returning to the airport. When attraction unit inspected that motor aft the level landed they recovered small oregon nary lipid successful the engine.

The NTSB hasn't determined if that lipid leak was the origin of the smoke. That won't beryllium established until the bureau completes its afloat study sometime adjacent year.

The level was met by firefighters erstwhile it landed, and erstwhile the pilots opened the formation platform door, they “noticed a tremendous magnitude of fume successful the cabin, and the skipper instantly ordered an evacuation,” the study said.

Passengers evacuated the level done a operation of the exigency slides astatine the beforehand and backmost of the level and climbing disconnected the wing.

The flight's destination had been Columbia, South Carolina.