Smoke Scare Grounds American Flight

An American Airlines jet en route from Dallas-Ft. Worth to San Diego made an unscheduled landing Wednesday after the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit, the company said.

The smoke wasn’t from a fire and the landing was made as a precaution, American Airlines spokesman Tim Smith said from company headquarters in Ft. Worth.

“Typically, it comes from an air conditioning system or something,” he said of the smoke. “So, in an abundance of caution, they put it down to have it checked out.”

Don Bedwell, another American Airlines spokesman, later said the smoke was caused by a pressurization problem and that the twin-engine Boeing 767 would be returned to Ft. Worth for repairs.

Flight 491, a wide-bodied Boeing 767, was carrying 168 passengers and a crew of seven. It left Dallas-T. Worth Airport at 4:30 p.m. CDT en route to San Diego and landed about 30 minutes later in Abilene, about 150 miles away, Smith said.

American sent a Boeing 727 to Abilene to pick up the passengers and return them to DFW, where they were to be put on another 767 departing for San Diego at 11:15 p.m. CDT, Bedwell said.