A JetBlue flight was forced to make a rapid emergency landing in Kansas — leaving some passengers in tears — Saturday evening after pilots were alerted to possible smoke in the cargo hold, officials said.
The cross-country flight took off from New York City’s JFK Airport and was destined for San Diego but was diverted to Salina, Kansas around 6:30 p.m. over what ultimately was a false alarm, JetBlue said in a statement Sunday.
“JetBlue flight 1189 diverted to Salina, Kansas, when the pilots received an alert that there might be smoke in the cargo hold, descending safely and landing without incident,” a JetBlue spokesperson said in an email.
“Upon inspection, we determined the smoke indication presented to our pilots was a false indication.”
The plane dropped down more than 30,000 feet in less than 10 minutes as it landed at the airport, according to Flight Radar 24 data reported on by KAKE.
But as the Airbus A320 was still in the air, the tension — and fear — was palpable among the roughly 130 passengers.
Passenger Seth Odell said the pilot announced over the intercom that he saw an alert for smoke in the cargo bay, according to NBC News.
“Some passengers did report hearing a loud bang, too, and so we descended incredibly rapidly and landed in the extremely small airport in Salina,” he recalled, noting there was only 10 minutes between the pilot’s report and landing.
“So obviously everybody was starting to freak out,” Odell reportedly said.
“Some people were crying. It was a little bit intense for a few minutes. Crew did a great job getting everybody organized extremely quickly, and obviously once we were on the ground, everyone was just elated.”
Salina fire Battalion Chief Derrick Herzog said there were no major problems with the plane, but the issue might have been electrical, according to the outlet.