Delta airlines flight makes emergency landing after broken plane part flies into engine after takeoff

Passengers say they 'started freaking out' as smoke filled the cabin area

Chris Riotta
New York
Wednesday 10 July 2019 08:45 BST
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Mid-air engine malfunction shows sparks on Delta flight from Atlanta

A flight made an emergency landing after a piece of the plane broke off and flew into the engine.

The malfunction occurred nearly an hour into Delta flight number 1425, after the plane had departed from Atlanta to Baltimore on Monday.

Passengers described smoke filling the cabin area before a tense emergency landing in North Carolina.

“After we heard the boom, we just saw all this smoke come up into the cabin and that’s when we really started freaking out,” one passenger told Baltimore’s WMAR-TV.

Another passenger said the pilot announced mid-flight that the plane had lost an engine and “they were making preparations to have an emergency landing.”

All 150 passengers aboard the flight reportedly managed to get on another plane later Monday evening to Baltimore. They also received food vouchers and an apology for the inconvenience.

No injuries were reported.

The Delta plane in use at the time of the incident was an MD-80 model, which at least one passenger complained was “too old” during an interview with WMAR, adding, “Delta needs to retire those MD-80’s”.

"The flight crew of Delta flight 1425 from Atlanta to Baltimore elected to divert to Raleigh, N.C. after receiving an indication of an issue with one of the aircraft’s engines," Delta said in a statement sent to The Independent. "The flight landed without incident and customers were re-accommodated on an alternate aircraft. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience this diversion may have caused.”

A Facebook user by the name Becca Montouth shared a video of the incident to her Facebook on Monday afternoon, writing, “I’m never gonna take my life for granted again.”

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The video, shot from within the cabin, appears to show the detached piece of the plane swirling around in the engine.

“I was on a plane 10,000 feet in the air when this happened,” the user added.

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