A Delta flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles had to make an emergency landing after smoke filled the cabin and passengers thought ‘this was the end.’
Delta Flight 2846 made an emergency landing in Albuquerque on Tuesday after a mysterious smoke filled both the passenger cabin and the cockpit.
Video filmed onboard shows the cabin filling with smoke from the front end and passenger and podcaster Gary Vaughn said he could only see a ‘few rows’ in front of him.
‘I knew something catastrophic had happened,’ he said on his podcast.
‘Everybody was crying, everybody was screaming, everybody thought essentially the engines were shut down. And you could hear that we were just kind of gliding…we were still pretty steady. There wasn’t turbulence, there wasn’t anything.’
The pilot told the 193 passengers that they had ‘lost oil pressure in the right engine’ and that it had ‘lost all power,’ Vaughn said.
Throughout the whole process, Vaughn said the four flight attendants were up and handing out water to passengers.
‘The pilot had complete control of the plane. I don’t think he ever lost control of the plane,’ Vaughn said.
‘The screaming, crying people definitely thought that this was the end,’ he said. ‘It was harrowing at best. When you watch movies and see all of the frantic crying and screaming and you hear those types of things, it’s exactly what went on.’
A deadheading pilot on the flight reportedly told Vaughn the smoke was from the engine because it had no oil.
Delta Flight 2846 made an emergency landing in Albuquerque on Tuesday after a mysterious smoke filled both the passenger cabin and the cockpit
Passenger video shows the eerie scene as smoke filtered toward the back of the plane, significantly heavier toward the front as an alarm blared
Fellow passenger Mason Weiner said on Twitter that the smoke came from ‘burnt oil’ in the engine. Another passenger, who goes by Queen Rainey Reigns on Facebook, also claimed the flight crew told passengers there was no oil in the engine and that the plane was ‘decreasing in altitude.’
Delta has not released an official reason for the smoke. DailyMail.com has reached out for comment.
The pilots were able to land safely at Albuquerque International Sunport, according FAA Public Affairs Specialist Donnell Evans.
Passengers Gary Vaughn (left) and Queen Rainey Reigns (right) were both on the flight. Vaughn described the moment as being in a movie, saying: ‘When I watch disaster movies now, I’ll completely under the terror.’ Rainey agreed, saying she was ‘terrified’ and had thought to herself: ‘Oh my God, am I going to make it?’
Another passenger Mason Weiner said the pilots landed the plane ‘smoothly’ and were ‘amazing’
‘The crew was amazing and made everything as smooth as possible while making an emergency landing in #Albuquerque,’ Weiner wrote.
Various videos posted online by passengers show an eerie looking cabin filling with a light smoke, with a significantly heavier plume toward the front of the plane.
As passengers sat calmly, a piercing emergency alarm went off steadily.
When the plane landed on the runway, a member of the flight crew can be heard in Vaughan’s video telling passengers to ‘keep your seatbelts fastened’ while fire crews checked out the plane before it could taxi to the gate.
Rainey also said the plane started smoking when they were over Texas.
‘Y’all, it’s been a day,’ Rainey said. ‘So we [were] flying, we [were] in the air on the plane over Texas and the inside of our plane started smoking. The fire alarm is going off, like it’s beeping like the house one when there’s too much smoke…it was going off.
‘The plane is just smoking on the inside,’ Rainey, who had been napping on the flight, said on her Facebook Story. ‘What can you do 36,000 feet in the air on a smoking plane? You just sit there and pray for the best. That’s the realization of it all.
‘You just have to talk your way through and affirm your way through it, and that’s what I had to do.
The flight path shows the plane had taken off from Atlanta and landed in Albuquerque
The pilots (pictured) were able to land safely at Albuquerque International Sunport. The FAA is investigating the incident
‘It was an experience,’ she said. ‘I was scared, I was terrified. It was the second scariest that happened in my life…it was a moment of: Oh my God, am I going to make it?’
The plane landed safely and journalist Mark Johnson posted a video of the pilots, thanking them for getting them to Albuquerque.
The FAA is investigating the incident and 193 passengers were rerouted to LAX on a later flight.
Delta Airlines told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘Nothing is important than the safety of our customers and crew.’
Delta’s maintenance professionals are looking into the plane’s malfunction.
‘Delta did a great job,’ Vaughn said. ‘I think their flight crew was tremendous, they kept everybody calm.’
Vaughn said Delta did offer them a $150 flight credit, but he doesn’t think it is enough after the experience they went through.
‘When I watch disaster movies now, I’ll completely under the terror,’ he said. ‘It was crazy.’