Passengers scramble out of plane in St. Louis after report of smoke in the cabin
Passengers climb off the the wing of United Express flight 4423 after it made an emergency landing in St. Louis. (Photo credit: Courtesy Dominic Gagliardotto via CNN Newsource)
(CNN) — The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a report of smoke in an airplane bathroom which led to an emergency landing in St. Louis, Missouri, and an evacuation on the runway Tuesday.
United Express flight 4423, operated by GoJet Airlines, had just taken off from St. Louis Lambert International Airport at 6:40 a.m., headed to Chicago, when “the crew reported a lavatory smoke warning,” GoJet spokesperson Elizabeth Dray said in a statement.
“We got smoke in the lav,” the pilot told the air traffic control tower moments after taking off, according to audio recorded by LiveATC.net. “We’re going to come back… we might need one of the fire trucks to follow behind us.”
The CRJ-700 plane landed just 12 minutes after it took off, according the flight tracking site FlightAware.com.
Video shot by passenger Dominic Gagliardotto showed passengers climbing onto the wing of the plane as flight attendants shouted to “leave everything behind.”
“It didn’t really hit until they started talking about, when we tell you to brace for impact, put your head down between your legs,” Gagliardotto told CNN affiliate WLS. “And when they said that I texted my daughter, telling her I’ll always love her.”
St. Louis firefighters helped people slide off the plane’s wings and onto the tarmac.
“The aircraft landed safely, and Lambert Airport operations transported all passengers back to the terminal,” the airline spokesperson said. “We arranged for a different aircraft, and all our customers successfully reached their destination.”
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