Bangor, United States: A Swiss International AirLines Airbus A330 operating Flight LX16 from Zurich to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport made an emergency diversion to Bangor International Airport in Maine on Monday, July 27, after smoke was reported aboard the aircraft.
The flight, carrying 208 passengers and crew, landed safely in Bangor at around noon local time. The aircraft was an Airbus A330, and emergency crews were placed on standby before it arrived at the airport.
According to Swiss International Air Lines, the diversion was prompted by smoke of unknown origin detected in the forward section of the Business Class cabin. The airline said its pilots decided to land without delay and declare an emergency, allowing air traffic control to give the aircraft priority to land.
The situation was also described differently in preliminary information released by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA said the flight crew had reported a cockpit fire before landing. The agency cautioned that the information was preliminary and subject to change. The airline, meanwhile, said the exact source of the smoke had not been identified.
The aircraft was cruising at about 32,000 feet and was roughly 100 nautical miles southeast of Bangor when the crew diverted toward the airport. The crew reportedly initially reported smoke of unknown origin before subsequently telling air traffic control that there was an active fire in the cockpit that they were unable to extinguish.
The pilots reportedly opened the cockpit door to allow smoke to escape, after which the smoke situation changed and was also noticed in the passenger cabin. The crew proceeded with the emergency diversion and landed on Runway 33 at Bangor International Airport.
After landing, the aircraft stopped and shut down its engines while emergency responders assessed the situation. Firefighters entered the aircraft and inspected the interior, including equipment intended to detect heat. No signs of fire or excessive heat were found, and the source of the smoke remained undetermined.
Passengers told local media that they noticed an electrical-type smell during the flight. One passenger said the smell appeared to be coming from the area of a seat, although this has not been established as the cause of the incident. Passengers also reported that the oxygen masks did not deploy and that they were not required to evacuate the aircraft on the runway.
All 208 people aboard were reported safe, and no injuries were reported. The aircraft was subsequently inspected, while SWISS worked with authorities and Bangor International Airport to arrange onward travel for passengers to New York.
The emergency landing temporarily closed the runway at Bangor International Airport for a little over 30 minutes, causing delays to other flights. The runway was reopened at about 12:30 p.m., according to an airport spokesperson.
SWISS spokesperson Michael Pelzer said the airline understood that such a diversion could be unsettling for passengers and said teams in Switzerland and the United States were working to arrange onward travel. The airline also said the aircraft would undergo a thorough inspection by its experts and that it would not speculate on the cause of the smoke until the investigation and inspection were complete.
The FAA said it would investigate the incident. The aircraft’s emergency diversion was resolved without further incident, with all passengers and crew safely on the ground in Bangor.
