Alaska Airlines Plane Makes Emergency Landing Over ‘Strong Odor’

A strong odor on an Alaska Airlines flight forced the plane to make an emergency landing on Aug. 12.

The plane, which was going from San Francisco to New Orleans, was forced to land in Los Angeles when “strong odor was detected onboard during the flight in the aft cabin,” a representative told the San Francisco Chronicle.

The plane landed at the Los Angeles airport at around 12 p.m. local time, according to the outlet, and the 136 passengers on board were re-accommodated on other flights.

The plane, according to Alaska Airlines, was “being inspected by technicians to pinpoint the cause.”

The cause of the smell wasn’t revealed.

Update on Alaska Airlines Crash

Richard Russell, who liked to be called Beebo, is seen in an undated photograph from a video he produced for his Youtube channel, obtained August 11, 2018. Youtube/Handout via Reuters

Meanwhile, according to reports on Aug. 13, human remains and black boxes were found in the wreckage of a plane owned by Alaska Airlines subsidiary Horizon Air in Washington state.

Over the weekend, Richard Russell, an airport worker, stole the aircraft from Seattle’s airport and flew close to highly populated areas before crashing, the FBI said. The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed that Russell died in the crash, USA Today reported.

Russell partook in a 75-minute plane ride that included attempted barrel rolls and unusual comments to air traffic control officials.

Officials said that he used a vehicle on the airport tarmac to point the plane to the runway. Then, he entered the empty plane and went into the cockpit.

“This is aviation in America,” Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden told USA Today. “The doors of the airplanes are not keyed like a car. There is not an ignition key like a car. The setup in aviation in America is we secure the airfield.”

Tilden noted that the incident will likely spur tighter security measures at airports and on planes. “Yesterday’s events will push us to learn what we can from this tragedy so that we can help prevent it from ever happening again, at our airline or any other,” Tilden said Aug. 11, CNBC reported.

“The physical security layers in the airport are not designed to protect (against) this,” Jeff Price, an aviation security consultant, professor at the Metropolitan State University in Denver, told CNBC.

In the report, Russell told air traffic control that he played a number of video games to figure out how to fly the plane. “You think if I land this successfully Alaska will give me a job as a pilot?” he said, adding that he’s “just a broken guy.”

“We don’t know how he learned to do that,” said Horizon’s CEO Gary Beck about how Russell came to operate the plane. CNBC, quoting an airline captain, also reported that “the process of starting up the plane is complex.”

“I’ve got a lot of people who care about me,” Russell told them. “It’s going to disappoint them to hear that I did this.”

Military jets were flying close to his plane during the flight.