Cathay Pacific Airliner Makes Emergency Landing in Aleutians
LOS ANGELES — Jul 29, 2015, 11:48 AM ET
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Cathay Pacific Boeing 777 bound from Hong Kong to Los Angeles International Airport has diverted to a U.S. air base in the Aleutian Islands after smoke was detected on the aircraft.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says Flight 884 declared an emergency and landed early Wednesday morning at Eareckson Air Station in Shemya, Alaska.
Cathay Pacific in a statement said flight CX884 made a precautionary diversion when the crew detected smoke in the jet.
The Boeing 777-300ER landed safely with 276 passengers and 18 crew.
Shemya Island is at the western tip of the Aleutians. The base has a 10,000-foot runway.
An American Airlines jet traveling from Dallas-Fort Worth to Tokyo made an emergency landing there in July 2010 after a fire warning light malfunctioned.
Noticed this before and was curious as to how you handle a 777-300 with just shy of 300 on board, at an airport on an island with less than 180 active military personnel there?
Looking at Googlemaps, it doesn't look like there's even room to manoeuvre a 777, let alone the facilities to handle it?