JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Delta Airlines flight that departed from Atlanta and was bound for Orlando was forced to make an emergency landing Monday afternoon in Jacksonville after smoke was reported in the cockpit, but there were no indications of fire on the aircraft.
According to a Jacksonville Aviation Authority spokesman, Delta flight 1576 was forced to land at Cecil Airport around 2 p.m.
Flightaware shows that at approximately 1:58 p.m, the flight plan changed to land at JAX (Jacksonville International Airport), but the flight map tracking showed the plane later landed safely at Cecil Airport.
The plane is a Boeing 757-200 and there were 208 souls on board, including 200 passengers along with the crew, JAA said.
Danny Hare was among the passengers.
“We landed very fast, and then we stopped really fast, like everybody leans forward because he’s slamming the brakes on. He’s slowing us down very quickly. Then he said, fire department’s going to check our airplane out. So everybody just sit tight,” Hare told News4JAX.
There were no injuries reported, according to JAA.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue was called to the scene.
The 200 passengers were taken off the aircraft and moved to a Cecil Airport ground facility after the plane landed.
“I was telling this to my wife and my daughter both. It’s kind of weird. You sit here and you think to yourself, What’s going to happen? Where are we headed with this? Should I, you know, should I text them and alert them? Because this could be the end, I don’t know,” Hare said.
Delta team members from Jacksonville International Airport were later sent to assist customers and coordinate carry-on and checked baggage retrieval.
Delta said it will arrange for ground transportation to get customers to Orlando on Monday afternoon.
“We apologize to our customers for the experience. Safety comes before everything else at Delta and our teams will now focus on taking care of our customers and getting them to their destinations,” Delta said in a statement.
