Delta Flight Makes Emergency Landing After 'Smoke Fills the Whole Aircraft'

Shortly after takeoff from New York's Kennedy (JFK) airport Friday night, Delta flight 2681 declared an emergency and requested immediate landing back at the airport. The San Francisco-bound flight safely landed on JFK runway 31L about 18 minutes after takeoff.

After vacating the runway, the aircraft was met by emergency services, which first inspected the aircraft from the outside before boarding the aircraft to investigate the reported "burning smell and haze" in the aircraft.

A passenger on the flight tweeted that the flight made an "emergency landing to JFK after smoke fills the whole aircraft shortly after takeoff." Delta said in a statement to TPG that, "There were no reports of smoke, only a smoky odor." The image that the passenger posted of the aircraft on the ground shows that oxygen masks weren't deployed.

*In a subsequent tweet, the passenger corrected the flight number from DL2282 to DL2681.

In a statement from Delta about the incident, the airline said:

“Delta flight 2681 operating from New York-JFK to San Francisco returned to JFK after the crew detected a smoky odor in the cabin. The flight landed safely without incident and returned to the gate where customers deplaned normally. The safety of our customers and crew remains Delta’s top priority and we apologize to our customers for the inconvenience.”

There were 160 customers onboard the aircraft with 6 crew members. Delta says that many customers were rebooked on alternate flights yesterday, while remaining customers "were provided overnight accommodations and departed this morning on an alternate aircraft." No injuries were reported.

The aircraft involved in the incident was a 21-year old Boeing 757-200 with the registration N709TW (MSN #28168). The aircraft had been removed from service as of Saturday, but it's currently scheduled to re-enter service at 8:10am on Sunday morning from Atlanta (ATL) to New York Kennedy (JFK) as flight #2350. According to FlightRadar24 records, this is the first incident for this aircraft since bad weather forced a diversion on March 2, 2018.

Boeing 757 aircraft doesn't have the ability to dump fuel. The aircraft's weight at landing and whether or not the aircraft made an overweight landing isn't known.

This post has been updated with a statement from Delta.