A Delta Airlines flight bound for Boston was forced to make an emergency landing in Portugal after smoke filled the cabin – and four people were hospitalized.
The Airbus A330 left Barcelona, Spain, at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday but diverted to Porto, Portugal, just two and a half hours into the eight-and-a-half-hour flight, according to FlightAware.
The plane suffered a mechanical issue, but a Portuguese official said smoke in the cabin forced the emergency landing.
Four people – three passengers and one crew member – were taken to a local hospital, Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias reported.
“Two male passengers were admitted to the emergency department due to smoke inhalation, both present mild respiratory symptoms and are in a stable condition,” a hospital spokesperson told the outlet.
The plane, carrying 296 people, flew over the northern Spanish regions of La Rioja and Galicia, and was heading toward the Atlantic Ocean when it was forced to divert some 500 miles off the Portuguese coastline.
It had reached a maximum altitude of approximately 32,000 feet.
Twelve people required oxygen in the air, according to local reports, while eight people were treated on the tarmac at Porto’s Francisco Sá Carneiro airport.
The other passengers were not put on an alternative Delta flight that evening.
A Boston-bound flight which was due to take off from Porto at 1 p.m. Monday was canceled, according to FlightAware.
Delta will operate a Boston-bound flight from Barcelona at 3:15 p.m. Monday.
The Post approached Delta Airlines for comment.
The in-flight incident comes a little over a month after a Delta plane bound for Fort-Lauderdale, Florida, was forced to make an emergency landing in Atlantaafter reports of a smoky smell onboard.
The flight left Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport at around 7 a.m. on Aug. 13 before swiftly returning just 15 minutes later “out of an abundance of caution,” an airline rep said of the incident.
With Post wires.
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