Passengers Dropped to the Ground Then Evacuated Fume-Filled Delta Flight

by Gary Leff

A dog was the first to notice, barking that something was wrong on Delta Flight 1854 from Detroit to Denver. Fumes came through the vents on the MD90.

Ultimately passengers dropped to the ground so they could breath and Delta evacuated the flight on the ground in Denver on Tuesday night. One person was taken to the hospital.

“Everyone was kind of yelling, like, ‘Hey, there’s smoke coming out of the vents. What’s going on? Open the doors. Why aren’t the masks dropping down?’ … After a couple of minutes, the flight attendant was like, ‘Everyone get low to the ground and cover your mouth with a blanket, or clothes, or whatever you have.’ And maybe a minute later, they finally made the call to evacuate the plane. And she yelled, ‘Evacuate the plane,’ and seconds later, the doors popped open. We all jumped down the slide and got out of there as fast as we could.”

(HT: @RenesPoints)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. It’s always touching how these passengers these days have the time to take pics and selfies instead of actually helping during an emergency. And then there are the bloggers willing to post their pics. And then there are the idiots like me who actually click on the links. Maybe not for long.

  2. Thats bleed for for you……. A seriously toxic event and likely not just “smoke”.

  5. A friend was in a plane that filled with smoke years ago. He suffered panic attacks on airplanes (a big problem for a consultant traveling weekly), fatigue, and lung issues for years. Ultimately the airline paid for lost income (he could work but the fatigue meant not as much) and his medical bills, but it was a fight. I hope none of these people go through that.

  6. I guess it’s a little too early to be cracking down on those emotional support animals now? Thank goodness the dog noticed.

  7. First off, that smoke can be toxic with damage showing up decades later. This is akin to smoking causing lung damage that only becomes cancer decades later. There is no way to avoid the danger, it could conceivably come from the first and only cigarette smoked.
    Maybe it is time that DELTA stopped using third hand, 20+ year old jets. This particular frame was used by a major Chinese airline, retired and sold to another Chinese firm and ultimately sold to DELTA.

  8. Thumbs down to the people taking their carry-ons and the people taking pictures and not helping. Jerks.

  9. Wow, so much anger against people taking pictures. Not everyone can help in these situations, due to location, experience, strength, stamina, etc. The pictures help us all know what to do and not to do in the future, they inform of of human behavior in emergency situations, and they tell a story. I suppose you would prefer that reporters don’t take pictures either?

  10. Hey NT. Nice try. A reporter would help a baby in a burning building, not take pictures of it burning to death…

    Besides being able bodied, the photo takers could have assisted getting people off the wing quicker. But of course we have to post everything to FB or IG and declare “I thought I was going to die” to get our 5 minutes of fame.

  11. Those selfies come in handy for the NTSB investigators trying to piece events back together when there are no survivors. I would rather live to talk about it. Definitely the infant gets out first and carry-ons are retrieve later. I wonder if it was relayed to a lithium battery malfunction?

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