An unexpected incident occurred on an Alaska Airlines flight, causing a diversion from its original route when four crew members fell ill. The flight, identified as Alaska Airlines Flight 810, was initially traveling from Lihue, Kauai in Hawaii to Seattle on a Thursday evening. However, the sudden sickness of the flight attendants necessitated an unplanned landing in Honolulu, roughly 90 minutes after takeoff.
The flight attendants began to feel unwell after an unidentified odor was detected in the cabin. Alaska Airlines, which has not yet commented on the incident, confirmed that there were 119 passengers and six crew members on board the flight. It was reported that no pilots or passengers required medical attention following the incident.
In response to the unexpected situation, Alaska Airlines coordinated alternative flights to Seattle for all passengers. The aircraft, a Boeing 737-800, was flown back to Seattle without passengers for further investigation.
Details regarding the nature of the odor detected in the cabin and the condition of the flight attendants following their hospital evaluation have not been disclosed.
Alaska Airlines has recently been in the news due to its ongoing merger process with Hawaiian Airlines. Earlier this year, the airline was in the spotlight when a door plug on one of its Boeing 737-9 MAX flights blew out in January.
In a related development, Boeing faced criticism from the National Transportation Safety Board earlier this summer. The criticism was in response to the company sharing details about the investigation into the door plug incident during a media briefing. The briefing was led by Elizabeth Lund, the senior vice president of quality for Boeing commercial airplanes and chair of the Enterprise Quality Operations Council.