Three Delta Air Lines passengers were hospitalized after a flight was forced to make an emergency landing when the cabin filled with smoke.
Delta Flight DL251 landed at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport in Porto, a city in the northwest of Portugal, thousands of miles from its intended destination of Boston.
An official at the Portuguese National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection told Reuters eight of the plane’s passengers were treated on the Tarmac, while at least three other passengers were taken to the hospital.
Speaking to CBS News, a Delta representative said that those taken to hospital had been “lightly” affected during the incident Sunday afternoon. They added that the Airbus A330 had been carrying 283 passengers and 13 crew members in total.
“The flight landed safely, and we apologize to our customers for the delay in their travels as we work to get them to Boston as safely and quickly as possible,” a spokesperson for Delta told The Hill.
The jet had left Barcelona, Spain, at around 3.15 p.m. and landed in Porto just before 6 p.m., according to FlightRadar24.
Footage obtained by CBS Boston showed workers in high-vis jackets climbing down the steps from the plane, which was surrounded by vehicles from Portugal’s emergency services.
The Independent has contacted the FAA, Delta Air Lines and Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport for comment.
The Federal Aviation Administration requires ventilation systems on planes to deliver clean air to passengers and crew, while also requiring jet manufacturers to prove that air in the cabin is free from “harmful or hazardous concentrations of smoke, vapor, or toxic or noxious fumes during normal operating conditions and in the event of any probable failure conditions.”
Under FAA guidelines, airlines must also file a Service Difficulty Report when smoke enters the cockpit or cabin.
The news comes just weeks after a Delta Air Lines flight dropped around 27,000 feet over 10 minutes due to a problem with cabin pressurization on September 6. The plane was traveling from Los Angeles International Airport to Salt Lake City before making an emergency landing in Las Vegas.
“Delta 2311 currently rapid descent,” crew can be heard saying in audio shared on social media. “We’d like to get down to 9,000, and we’re direct Las Vegas.”
“Affirmative,” a pilot added when asked by an air traffic controller if oxygen masks had been deployed.
A Delta spokesperson told Fox News that the jet’s crew followed company procedure to keep the aircraft and its passengers safe.
“As safety comes before everything else at Delta, the flight crew of Delta flight 2311 LAX-SLC followed their training and procedures to safely bring the aircraft to optimal altitude when an unexpected pressurization issue occurred,” the spokesperson said.
