Smoke in Cockpit Causes Delta Flight to Make Emergency Landing in Fargo
A Delta Air Lines flight had to conduct an emergency landing on Thursday after smoke was reported in the cockpit.
The Boeing 757 was en route to Anchorage (ANC) from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) when the incident occurred.
Delta Flight 1601 took off from MSP at 5:57pm and set its coordinates for Anchorage. At some point in the first 45 minutes of the flight, smoke was reported in the cockpit. The pilots made the decision to make an emergency landing when the aircraft was over the "Bismarck area," according to InfoForum.
The aircraft, which was holding 195 passengers and seven crew members, turned around at 6:49pm and made its way to Hector International Airport (FAR), in Fargo, North Dakota.
Flight 1601 made a safe landing at 7:30pm and emergency personnel, including firefighters, greeted the aircraft.
Delta shared this statement with TPG regarding the incident:
Delta apologized for the inconvenience to the customers on flight 1601 from Minneapolis to Anchorage following a diversion to Fargo. Our team in Fargo provided food and care while awaiting a new aircraft to continue the flight to Alaska.
The airline sent a replacement aircraft, scheduled to arrive in Fargo at 11:00pm to take passengers to their final destination five and half hours later than originally planned.
Delta offered pizza to the passengers who were waiting. It's not the first time the carrier has done that to please disgruntled travelers — it once sent 160 pizzas and 60 footlong subs to stranded passengers in Nashville.
A United 757-200 made an emergency landing in February after reports of smoke in the cockpit.
