WAYNE COUNTY

Flight makes emergency landing at Detroit Metro

Holly Fournier
The Detroit News

A Florida-bound Spirit Airlines flight made an emergency landing Friday at Detroit Metro Airport after a “possible loss of cabin pressure,” according to airline officials.

Spirit Airlines Flight 417 made an emergency landing at Detroit Metro Airport after a “possible loss of cabin pressure,” according to airline officials.

The 6:30 a.m. Flight 417 to Fort Lauderdale was plagued with severe turbulence before oxygen masks suddenly dropped from above, passenger Travis Goldstein of Jackson said after returning to the airport outside Detroit.

“The masks flew down during heavy turbulence. It was like a movie,” Goldstein said. “The captain came over the intercom and said that we had lost cabin pressure and to put our masks on.”

The turbulence “was like a roller coaster,” Goldstein said.

“(The pilot) says we’re turning back around to make an emergency landing and we’d be there in 15 minutes,” the passenger said. “But it took us an hour and we had no updates after he came on the initial time.”

Spirit confirmed the emergency landing in an emailed statement Friday.

“(The flight) returned safely to DTW this morning following a possible loss of cabin pressure,” officials said in the statement. “Passengers were deplaned and our customer service agents are working to get them to their final destinations. No injuries were reported.

Passenger Travis Goldstein of Jackson wears an oxygen mask aboard Spirit Airlines Flight 417 on Friday.

“Mechanics will conduct a full inspection of the plane to determine what caused the issue,” the statement continued. “We apologize for any inconvenience and we’ll be issuing future flight credits to all impacted customers.”

Airline representatives did not detail what caused the incident or the prolonged landing. A Metro Airport official on Friday said she heard about the emergency landing but could not confirm details.

As the minutes turned to a half-hour and longer to land on Friday, the cabin got too hot to keep his mask on, Goldstein said.

“I took my mask off and realized I could breathe,” he said. “That’s when I could smell something like it was burning, and there were just these beeping noises going off.”

There was almost complete silence from passengers in the cabin during the emergency, Goldstein said.

“It was very tense. People gasped (when the masks came down) but then it was just really quiet,” he said. “We were just listening to what the captain was saying.”

Around half the passengers lightened up as time went on, but Goldstein remained nervous, he said.

“We got no reassurance, nothing was said to us,” Goldstein said of the lengthy emergency landing. “Some people were relaxed, like this had happened before. The other half were wide-eyed, bugged eyes with these masks on.

“There was a first-time flier a couple rows in front of me and he was probably the most freaked out. He was just hunched over, legs were bouncing, and his girlfriend was rubbing his back, kind of consoling him.”

Goldstein said he flies around three to five times a year. He normally flies other airlines but chose Spirit on Friday because he had only packed a backpack as a free personal item. He was on his way to Fort Lauderdale to visit family for the holiday weekend.

Spirit Airlines has offered passengers a full refund for Friday’s flight plus a $100 voucher, Goldstein said. The airline rebooked him and other Florida-bound passengers on another flight later Friday, which took off shortly after 11 a.m.

“All passengers and flight crew are in good spirits (no pun intended) upon second departure,” Goldstein said via text message shortly before takeoff.

HFournier@detroitnews.com

(313) 223-4616

Twitter: @HollyPFournier