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Travelers aboard a recent Delta Air Lines flight faced a midair scare when oxygen masks suddenly dropped in the passenger cabin.
A pressurization issue occurred aboard Delta Flight 2311 on Sept. 6, prompting the crew to bring the plane to a lower altitude and divert to Las Vegas, a Delta spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The flight was carrying 174 passengers and six crew members.
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“As safety comes before everything else at Delta, the flight crew of Delta flight 2311 LAX-SLC followed their training and procedures to safely bring the aircraft to optimal altitude when an unexpected pressurization issue occurred,” the spokesperson said.
The flight, which was traveling from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, descended roughly 27,000 feet in about 10 minutes as oxygen masks deployed in the cabin, according to reports.
A flight was forced to rapidly descend about 27,000 feet in 10 minutes after the plane experienced an unexpected pressurization issue. (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto/Getty Images; Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images)
News of the rapid descent could be heard in communications between the pilots and air traffic control.
“Delta 2311 currently [in] rapid descent. We’d like to get down to 9,000, and we’re direct [to] Las Vegas,” a pilot said in an air traffic control recording, according to reports.
When an air traffic controller asked, “Is the oxygen deployed?” the pilot responded, “Affirmative.”
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The aircraft landed safely at Harry Reid International Airport in Vegas — where passengers exited normally, according to Delta.
Delta arranged for another aircraft so that passengers could continue on with their journey.
Oxygen masks deployed aboard the flight (not pictured) as the aircraft rapidly descended; the flight was able to land in Las Vegas. (iStock)
“Delta sincerely apologizes to our customers for their experience and thanks our flight crews and other support teams on the ground for their professionalism,” the spokesperson said.
Matthew “Whiz” Buckley of Florida, a retired U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot with nearly 40 years of flying experience, said such a pressurization occurrence “is an extremely rare issue” in the United States.
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In a case such as the Delta one, he told Fox News Digital that pilots in this scenario would need “to land as soon as practical — meaning, what’s the closest airfield with a nice, long, suitable runway where we can get this thing on the ground safely.”
The incident drew attention online. A passenger aboard the flight talked about the chaos inside the cabin.
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“The scariest part wasn’t even the descent — it was not knowing what was going on,” the passenger wrote on Reddit. “Flight attendants were trying to make announcements with their masks on, and it was almost impossible to hear them.”
Delta arranged for another aircraft (not pictured) so that passengers could continue their journey. (Robert Smith/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The passenger was reportedly asleep when a fiancé said something about what was going on.
“It took me another second of ‘Is this real or am I dreaming?’ before getting our masks on,” the traveler wrote.
“I was frantically trying to see if I could get on WiFi because I didn’t know if I was going to have to be sending out ‘I love you’ texts,” the person added.
“It took me another second of ‘Is this real or am I dreaming?’ before getting our masks on.”
Other travelers responded to the post by sharing their own experiences with oxygen masks and rapid descents.
One Reddit user recalled a previous Delta flight that descended from about 34,000 feet to 10,000 feet while passengers wore oxygen masks.
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“The several minutes of rapid descent … [were] pretty jarring until the captain finally came on the mic once we were at a safe altitude,” the commenter wrote — adding that passengers remained quiet and focused on breathing through their masks.
