An American Airlines flight en route to Philadelphia from San
Juan was diverted to West Palm Beach Airport yesterday after the
cockpit filled with smoke.
According to American
spokesman Tim Wagner, six people -- the pilot and co-pilot; three
flight attendants; and one passenger -- were taken to area
hospitals for evaluation; all were treated and released.
Wagner said the
flight left Wednesday on time from San Juan at 6:40 p.m. and about
two hours into the flight, the pilots detected "a haze in the
cockpit and decided to divert to a local airport to check out the
issue."
Shortly after making
the decision to divert the flight an inside pane of the cockpit
window shattered; the outside pane did not shatter.
"The cause of the
haze and the window shattering was a faulty window heater, [which
is] designed to prevent the window from icing over," said
Wagner.
Flight 1738 departs
St. Maarten each afternoon en route to San Juan, continuing on to
Philadelphia via Boeing 757 aircraft. The plane carried 139
passengers and seven crew on Jan. 30; all passengers were able to
make it back to Philadelphia via a special flight that American
operated, Wagner said.
The special flight
departed at around 2 a.m. from West Palm Beach and landed in
Philadelphia by 4:45 a.m. today.
The window will be
replaced and the aircraft put back in service, according to
Wagner.