Smoke forces plane into landing
- Source: Global Times
- [01:39 August 31 2010]
- Comments
By An Baijie
A Boeing-767 Shanghai Airlines airplane carrying more than 100 passengers had to make an emergency return Monday after smoke started to appear inside the cabin. No passengers were hurt in the incident.
Thick smoke began to fill the cabin of flight FM809, headed for Hong Kong from Shanghai Pudong International Airport, at about 11:30 am Monday, 45 minutes after it took off.
The plane had to return to the airport at 11:53 am.
An employee surnamed Luo from the publicity department of China Eastern Airlines, which took over Shanghai Airlines, told the Global Times Monday that the smoke was caused by a malfunction in the air-conditioning system.
None of the passengers was injured, and most of them had already boarded other flights to Hong Kong after the incident, Luo said.
"It's not a serious incident," he said.
A passenger on board surnamed Xu said that the plane encountered some turbulence, and thick smoke then started to spread from the front section of the cabin, according to a report on the Shanghai-based website eastday.com.
Xu said the staff on the plane provided wet towels to the passengers to prevent them from inhaling smoke, and oxygen masks were also lowered for the passengers.
"All of a sudden, the oxygen masks fell down without any warning," a passenger told the local Dragon TV Station.
"There was a flash on the panel that joins first class to economy class, then I heard a big noise, and smoke started to come out," another passenger was quoted as saying.
A passenger sitting at the back of the economy class section told China National Radio that staff had tried to use fire extinguishers to stop the smoke, but were unsuccessful in their attempts.
The smoke made it impossible to see and also caused passenger's eyes to water, said the passenger.
Three fire engines, as well as a number of ambulances and police cars, had already arrived at the airport when the plane landed in Shanghai, said the CNR report.
