Several passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight to Los Angeles were injured evacuating the plane overnight after an engine problem forced the Boeing 757 to return to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport for an emergency landing.
The plane, Flight 1323, took off at 11:51 p.m. Monday and returned minutes later.
“The cockpit crew elected to return back to Atlanta for mechanical evaluation,” Delta spokeswoman Chris Kelly Singley told AM750 and now 95.5FM News/Talk WSB. “The flight landed safely and emergency vehicles assisted the aircraft once it was on the ground.”
Singley told the station that three of the 174 passengers suffered minor injuries, apparently while they were going down the plane’s evacuation slides. She told the AJC late Tuesday morning that those passengers had all been treated at local hospitals for injuries such as sprained ankles and had been released.
The passengers were bused to the terminal and were given the option of either spending the night in Atlanta or continuing on to Los Angeles on another plane. Singley said 158 of the passengers chose to continue their trip to Los Angeles on a second plane Monday night.
Singley said late Tuesday morning that the plane involved was still being evaluated by mechanics and she could not confirm media reports that an engine caught fire during the flight.
Monday night's incident came two days after another Delta 757 out of Atlanta was diverted due to a problem with an engine.
On Saturday, Flight 221 was headed from Atlanta to Brazil when the pilot "noticed an issue with the right engine," Delta spokesman Eric Torbenson told the AJC.
He said the pilot diverted the flight to Caracas "out of an abundance of caution" and the plane landed safely.
"We had had 119 passengers on board and all of them reached Brasilia on Sunday after we sent another flight down for them," Torbenson said.
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