A JetBlue flight was forced to make a steep dive in Kansas late Saturday evening after a smoke alarm went off in the rear cargo compartment, causing extreme distress to some passengers. The flight, which had departed from JFK Airport in New York City en route to San Diego, was diverted to Salina, Kansas, around 6:30 PM local time.
Indeed, as JetBlue noted, it did come to light that the smoke alarm was a false alarm. The airline said that about 130 people were on the flight. An employee of JetBlue said that Flight 1189 landed in Salina following a report that smoke was detected in the cargo section through an alert to the pilots. Information displayed by Flight Radar 24 suggested that the aircraft lost at least 30000 feet in just about 10 minutes.
Passenger Seth Odell described this event; he pointed out that the pilot was the first to alert people of a smoke problem via an intercom system. “Some of the passengers would later claim that they heard a loud sound and that we began our descent very sharply before touching down at the Salina airport,” he said.
Odell described the atmosphere on the plane during the descent: Well, clearly, everybody had decided to panic. Some people were crying. In a few minutes, though, it may have been a little more intense.” He appreciated the crew’s efforts as they took fast action, and the passengers were overjoyed once on the ground.
Salina Fire Battalion Chief Derrick Herzog assured that apart from minor concerns, nothing was detected wrong with the plane after landing.
