American Airlines Flight 81 has made an emergency landing at LAX Airport after discovering smoke in the cabin.
If you have relatives who may have been onboard that flight, it was Flight 81 leaving from LAX to Honalulu.
According to the FAA and officials, the plane was discovered to have smoke in the cabin after taking off - so the pilot turned the plane around to make an emergency landing.
Passengers onboard the flight slid to their safety via an emergency chute.
The source of the smoke has not yet been revealed. Some passengers are reported to possibly have minor injuries.
I just watched the track (ground track) of the plane on tv. It seemed to turn back near Santa Barbara.
If the situation were dire, there is a 6050' runway (tight but doable) at Santa barbara airport, Point Magu NAS and Vandenberg AFB were also close by with runways of 11,000' and 15000' .
The pilot elected to land downwind at KLAX to expedite the arrival...if things were that bad the above airports might have been a better option
It sounds to me like there was an air conditioning problem.
It seems to me that the slides/chutes might have been over doing it, but we simply don't know the details.
Authorities say they received a call at about 9:27 a.m. after a smoke smell was detected in the cabin area of American Airlines flight 31, which had taken off from LAX at 8:48 a.m. and was carrying 188 passengers and six crew members.
The plane turned back and touched down around 9:45 a.m. on Runway 7, where fire crews were already on hand in anticipation of the Airbus 380 landing, said Brian Humphrey of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
I believe the A380 is the Emirates A380 doing a tour on the west coast after its debut to NY.
The fire engines were _coincidentally_ there for the A380 arrival when the AA31 had the issue, it didn't state that the A380 was the american flight that had the issue.
Passengers evacuated an American Airlines plane by inflatable slides Tuesday after it made an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport an hour after taking off, a fire department official said.
Having had my two daughters transiting thru LAX having just arrived from Sydney on their way to Toronto, it was quite disconcerting when I saw the above captioned headline on CNN, I was quick to investigate to make sure it was not the flight with my children onboard.
I am very happy that no one was hurt in the process and everyone is safe.
Last edited by funntimes : 5th August 2008 at 21:36.
Presumably this is the Emirates A380, on a USA tour before it goes into service.
Although why the A380 would need fire crews in attendance I have no idea
I was at the Farnborough air show in '06, where the Engine Alliance were giving out frisbees with their logo on them. The guy at the stand kept saying "help yourselves - it's the only thing of ours that flies!"
I doubt oxygen masks would be dropped. Starter, triangle of fire, O2 helps a fire to burn and something burning has smoke.
The masks "mix" the cabin air with the oxygen, so you`d get a lung fulls of smoke and anything else using the drop down oxygen system, hence smoke hoods for cabin crew, paxs heads down and if possible wet/damp cloths over nose and mouth.
With all the fuss of a pax slide deployment, as well as that of a manual mask deployment, it sounds like the Cpt played it safe . . . thus leaving no room for his super caution to be chewed on by the chief pilot. I am told that each slide costs approx $13,000 to repack and re-certify. . . . All of this commotion (and many skinned fannys) for probably a simple lubrication drip on a pack ACM.
SSR Why do you keep mentioning the fact that it was near Santa Barbara, or that there were nearby Mil airfields????, are you questioning the flight crew decision to return to LAX? If you look at the flight details (on Flightaware) they had just reached FL360 at 09:12 and diverted, starting descent at 09:14, at 09:25 they were at 10,000 ft, and on the ground at 09:45. Santa Barbara does have jet traffic, but not 757 size, mainly RJ's, turboprops and bizjets.
If they had the problem at high altitude of course they would return to LAX. You don't complicate things by landing at unfamiliar runways with minimal facilities to save a few miles flying especially if you are at cruising altitude. I don't know why the masks dropped. I haven't flown the B757 in 5 years but I had a similar smoke in cabin and cockpit emergency return to MIA and after shutting down the aux busses for electrical smoke which wasn't even a memory item then, but was after I filled out my report, landed with normal pressurisation. I recall a smoke removal check list that has you turn off the packs, one at a time, to see if it is the cause. Also bringing the cabin up to get the smoke out and manual and opening outflow valve manually if that didn't work. Maybe the cabin got above 14,000 ft and automatically dumped the masks if it got to that point. It ended up fine so good job guys.
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