Eastern Jet Makes Emergency Landing
An Eastern Airlines 757 with 39 passengers aboard was forced to make an emergency landing at Savannah International Airport Friday when smoke began filling the cockpit.
No injuries were reported.
Air traffic controller Les Jones said the plane’s pilot radioed a Jacksonville, Fla., control tower to report smoke in the cockpit and the smell of smoke in the cabin. Savannah’s control tower directed the plane to an emergency landing at 4 p.m..
Emergency crews supervised the landing, but the aircraft taxied under its own power to a stop and the runway was closed for two minutes, Jones said.
George Monro, an Eastern Airlines official in Savannah, said the plane’s passengers and crew went on to their destinations aboard an American Airlines and an Eastern flight.
Flight 342 was flying non-stop from Orlando, Fla., to Norfolk, Va., before its emergency detour to Savannah, which was the closest runway that could handle the aircraft, Jones said.
He said the cause of the smoke is not yet known, but he speculated the problem may have been in the plane’s heating system.
Monro said mechanics will continue to examine the plane to determine the source of the smoke.
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