Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman has been retained by dozens of passengers of the JetBlue Flight 1416 in-flight emergency, which occurred on September 18, 2014.
At approximately 9:17 a.m., the Airbus A320 plane with 142 passengers and five crewmembers departed from Long Beach Airport bound for Austin, Texas. Shortly after takeoff, passengers were startled by a loud bang coming from the right side of the plane.
The pilots in the cockpit noticed a warning that the plane’s number two engine was overheating. Extinguishing agents were deployed as smoke began to fill the passenger cabin.
Many on the plane began to panic, some struggling to breathe. For some reason, oxygen masks were not immediately deployed. Flight attendants handed them out, one by one, as the pilots turned the plane back toward Long Beach. Passengers were told repeatedly to ‘brace’ as they approached the airport. After the plane landed, everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief as they evacuated the aircraft on emergency slides.
JetBlue Flight 1416 Flight Crew Calm in Cockpit Recordings During Emergency Landing
Cockpit recordings from the JetBlue Flight 1416 in-flight emergency were released this week. Air traffic controllers and the pilots of the flight sounded calm in the face of an engine fire that filled the cabin with smoke and caused panic among passengers.
JetBlue Flight 1416 departed from Long Beach Airport after 9:00 a.m. on September 18. Shortly after takeoff, passengers heard a loud boom. The pilots declared an emergency, indicating to air traffic controllers that there was a fire in the plane’s number two engine. The plane returned to Long Beach as some passengers struggled to breathe. Flight attendants told passengers repeatedly to ‘brace’ as they prepared to land. Everyone aboard was able to evacuate safely, though four people sustained injuries in the emergency.
According to the Press-Telegram, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has not yet concluded what caused the engine fire. An NTSB spokesman says the agency is not conducting a “major investigation” into the in-flight emergency, but officials will look into whether maintenance issues or faulty manufacturing played a role in the fire.
