An American Airlines flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Boston had to make an emergency landing in Little Rock after crew reported smoke in the cockpit, affording to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Flight 2436, a Boeing 757 with 139 people on board, was originally scheduled to arrive in Boston at 9:40 p.m. Eastern Time. It landed in Little Rock at 7 p.m. Central Time (8 p.m. EDT) after being diverted, according to Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the Southwest Region of the FAA.
Lunsford said American Airlines sent a new plane to pick up the passengers and deliver them to Boston. American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner confirmed that the new plane left Little Rock at 9:45 Central Time (10:45 EDT) and landed safely in Boston at 11:44 p.m. Eastern Time.
(UPDATE: The times American Airlines gave for this flight were wrong. Three passengers aboard the flight emailed Blast and the FAA has confirmed that the plane did not land in Boston until nearly 4 a.m. Eastern Time. We are unsure why American was unable to keep track of its airplane.)
A Northeastern University alumna was on the flight and sent a chilling Mobile Facebook status update after the emergency landing.
“My plane caught on fire at 30k feet. We had an emergency landing in Arkansas and we almost died. I’m okay and hoping just to get home safely. I love all of you,” she wrote.
This was the third flight with a Boston connection that had to be diverted or returned to the airport in the past week. On Saturday, American Airlines flight 1937 from Boston to San Juan, Puerto Rico had to return to Boston after a smell of smoke from the rear bathroom. On July 22, engine trouble forced Air France Flight 322 to return to Boston Logan International Airport just 31 minutes after takeoff.
By the way: We mistakenly reported the origin of the flight as San Diego in an early version of this story.