Oil Warning Forces Jet to Make Unscheduled Stop

A Delta 757 jet bound for San Diego made an unscheduled stop Friday at an airport here after the pilot saw an oil pressure light flash on, officials said.

Delta Airlines spokesman Bill Berry said mechanics found no problem and the plane, which was en route from Atlanta, departed for San Diego about an hour later.

Accounts varied over whether the flight carried 76 or 81 passengers.

Berry said it is routine in such situations to land at the nearest airport.

“It was a low oil pressure warning indicator,” Berry said. “He stopped in Shreveport because we have mechanics there and that was a city we were almost directly flying over.”

“It was just a precautionary measure to check it out,” said Stan Johnson, operations spokesman at Shreveport Regional Airport.

Firefighters and other emergency personnel scrambled to the main runway to await Flight 423, and it landed safely at the airport 15 minutes later, fire officials said.

No one was ever in danger and no engines went out, Berry said.

“These things happen all the time. This is a situation where if you get a light indication on, you’re going to stop. The mechanics cleared it as being fine,” he added.

Several incidents this summer involving Delta planes have prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to launch an investigation into Delta’s pilot training program.

Among the incidents:

- June 30, a Delta plane taking off from Los Angeles nearly ditched in the ocean after the pilot cut off power to the engines.

- July 7, a Delta plane landed at the wrong airport in Kentucky.

- July 8, a Delta plane nearly collided with a Continental jet 31,000 feet over the Atlantic near Newfoundland. Officials said the Delta jet was nearly 60 miles off course.

- July 12, a Delta plane landed on the wrong runway at Boston’s Logan Airport.