Passengers literally forced to "wing it" on horror flight
Passengers on a flight from Detroit to Denver were forced to evacuate a Delta Air Lines flight, climbing out of the plane’s windows, because of smoke in the cabin.
The flight, which landed on Tuesday and was carrying 146 passengers, had an emergency evacuation while the plane was taxiing to terminal.
Delta Flight 1854 from Detroit landed around 8:10 pm when smoke started appearing.
Flight attendants instructed passengers to cover their faces and to get down as low as possible.
“We didn’t get any clear instructions, so people were like, hey, smoke,” passenger Paige Armstrong said.
“Someone was whistling, people were yelling, everyone was pressing their buttons and then they opened the cockpit.
“The woman next to me may have been a flight attendant and she said they are checking with the pilot to see what was going on. And I said, ‘Why don’t they let us out?’ Then they did. Then everyone was very orderly and polite.”
All of the passengers exited the plane by using either slides or a window near the wing of the plane.
There were a few reports of passengers who had minor smoke inhalation.
“After arrival in Denver and during taxi to the gate, Delta flight 1854 from Detroit to Denver stopped on a taxiway where customers deplaned via slides and over-wing exits due to an observance of smoke in the cabin,” Delta said in a statement.
“Airport response vehicles met the aircraft out of an abundance of caution and customers were transported to the terminal via buses. The safety of Delta’s customers and crew is our top priority and we apologise for the concern this situation has caused.”
The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate what went wrong.