Plane Headed To Conn. Makes Emergency Landing In Buffalo After Passenger Passes Out
CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A plane headed for Connecticut was forced to make an emergency landing upstate Wednesday, after a passenger lost consciousness.
As CBS2's Alice Gainer reported, SkyWest Flight 5622, operating as United Express, was carrying 84 people when it took off from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Wednesday morning.
The plane had been headed to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut until the cabin crew let the cockpit know someone was unconscious.
The pilot thought he might have a pressurization issue, so he declared an emergency and took the plane from 37,000 feet to 10,400 feet – a steep drop – in a period of eight minutes. The pilot then leveled off and made a more controlled descent – landing at Buffalo Niagara International Airport upstate Cheektowaga at about 11:40 a.m.
About a dozen people on the plane said they felt light-headed or nauseated.
"The scariest thing was just the nose dive -- it was very obvious we were descending rapidly as we could at this point," said passenger Vanessa Bergmann. "We just got off the plane and there were paramedics to meet us -- that's all the info we got."
SkyWest Inc., which is based in St. George, Utah, said the jet landed safely and the passenger received medical attention before being released. The airline said it made plans to transport the passengers to Hartford, Connecticut.
The Federal Aviation Administration said initial information indicated the Embraer E170 jet may have had a pressurization problem, but that turned out to be incorrect.
SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow said the plane's oxygen masks did not release.
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