Smoke Fills Cabin on Hawaiian Airlines Flight, Prompting Emergency Landing
Seven passengers were taken to hospital after smoke filled the cabin and cargo hold of a Hawaiian Airlines flight before it made an emergency landing at Honolulu International Airport on August 22, the airline said.
Smoke began to fill the cabin about 20 minutes before landing, according to Jon Snook, the airline’s chief operations officer, who spoke at a press conference after the incident. He said the flight landed safely and all passengers and crew members used evacuation slides to exit the plane.
Those hospitalized included five adults and two children, Snook said.
Hawaii News Now subsequently reported that a Hawaiian Airlines spokesman said a seal on the aircraft’s left engine failed, “causing oil to leak onto hot parts of the plane’s engine and air conditioning pressurization system, resulting in smoke in the cabin.”
This video was captured by passenger David Gelber and shows smoke filling the cabin as the flight prepared to land. It also shows passengers evacuating the plane using an evacuation slide.
Gelber told Storyful he was returning to Hawaii after a business trip to California when he captured the footage. “It got so bad that you could not see any more than five feet,” Gelber told Storyful, adding that the smoke made him dizzy for a number of hours. Credit: David Gelber via Storyful
