6 Hurt as Jet Makes Emergency Landing

Passengers gasped and prayed as an American Airlines jetliner lost cabin pressure at 31,000 feet Thursday, but the Boeing 767 made a safe emergency landing. Six people, including actor Abe Vigoda, were slightly injured.

The pilot on Flight 160 reported that a compressed air line burst in the passenger compartment as the plane was heading nonstop from San Diego to Kennedy International Airport in New York, said Mitch Barker, a spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Seattle.

Aircraft insulation spewed into the cabin, an airport statement said.

The captain deployed oxygen masks and dropped the jetliner from 31,000 feet to 10,000 feet before landing safely at Palm Springs International Airport at 9:08 a.m., about half an hour after it had taken off from San Diego.

The flight was carrying 112 passengers and a crew of 12, said Al Becker, an American Airlines spokesman.

“There was suddenly an indication of a decompression in the cabin” and the pilot immediately began to descend, he said.

Becker said six people had minor injuries but he did not know their extent. Vigoda, 78, who was flying to New York after taping a segment for NBC’s “The Conan O’Brien Show,” was examined at a hospital and then flew on to New York, said Rosanne Carlton, his business manager. Vigoda is best known as Det. Phil Fish on the “Barney Miller” TV show.

“He did have a slight ear problem. I think it was just ear pressure and a bloody nose,” she said.

“Dateline NBC” correspondent John Larson was also on the plane.

“Twenty to 30 minutes into the flight, we heard a loud bang,” he told KNBC-TV, Channel 4.

“I could not sense any loss of cabin pressure. There was a loud hissing of air for about five seconds after the bang so I was thinking we were decompressing, but I could not sense any loss of cabin pressure.”

Larson said passengers were clearly concerned but handled the situation well.

“There was a loud gasp right after it happened,” he said. “You could hear people talking to each other. You could see some people starting to pray. I, ironically, was reading the morning newspaper about EgyptAir and a 767, so I think it was on everyone’s mind.”

EgyptAir 990, also a Boeing 767, plunged into the Atlantic off the Massachusetts coast Oct. 31, killing all 217 on board. The cause is still being investigated.