A Delta Air Lines flight made an emergency landing at Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport on Tuesday night, after the flight crew detected a strange smell and changed course.
The Seattle-bound flight departed from John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 7:31 p.m., according to the aircraft tracking platform FlightAware. Less than an hour into the trip, while it was above Yosemite National Park, the plane veered sharply west.
The flight was diverted “out of an abundance of caution” after flight crew members reported an “odor” wafting through the cabin, Delta spokesperson Jess Merrill said Wednesday morning. Merrill said she had no further information about the nature of the smell.
“The aircraft landed without incident and customers deplaned normally,” Merrill said. “The aircraft has been taken out of service for evaluation.”
The flight landed in Oakland at 8:48 p.m. The Oakland runway was “quickly inspected and reopened,” airport spokesperson Kaley Skantz said.
What ordinarily would have been about a three-hour flight turned into an overnight stay for some passengers.
A Delta spokesperson said passengers were provided with “a combination of hotels, meals and alternate ground transportation/rebooking via other flights.”
The same flight departed from Oakland at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, landing in Seattle just after 5 p.m.