Telegraph Reporters
18 September 2024 9:04pm
Passengers were left with bleeding eardrums, headaches and bloody noses after a Delta Air Lines flight suffered cabin pressure issues.
The flight was travelling from Salt Lake City to Portland, Oregon, on Sunday when the pilots of the five-year-old Boeing 737-900ER aircraft noticed a pressurization problem and made an emergency landing back in Utah’s capital, according to the flight log.
The incident is now being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Passengers told television station KSL they noticed people bleeding as the plane decreased in elevation over the Great Salt Lake. Pilots announced they were returning to the airport but did not explain why, passenger Caryn Allen said. Oxygen masks did not deploy.
Ms Allen described watching her husband cover his ears in pain while other passengers tried to help a man on the other side of the aisle who had an uncontrollable bloody nose.
Another passenger, Jaci Purser, told KSL it felt like someone was stabbing her inner ear.
“I grabbed my ear, and I pulled my hand back, and there was blood on it,” she said.
Paramedics met passengers at the gate and identified at least 10 people out of the 140 on the flight who required medical attention. They recommended that anyone who was bleeding go to the hospital for further evaluation, and Delta offered to cover those transportation costs, the airline said.
“We sincerely apologize to our customers for their experience on flight 1203 on Sept. 15,” Delta said in a statement. “The flight crew followed procedures to return to SLC where our teams on the ground supported our customers with their immediate needs.”
The airline said the plane was taken out of service on Sunday and went back into service the next day after technicians resolved an issue that had made the plane unable to pressurize above 10,000 feet, Delta said.
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