A Southwest flight has been forced to make an emergency landing after reportedly suffering an engine issue. As reported by People, Southwest Flight 3396 was originally flying from Santa Ana to San Jose.
However, they reported a "general emergency" around an hour after taking off from John Wayne Airport. The flight was around 20,000 feet above ground when they made the 7700 squawk code. That designation means it was a general emergency.
Reported radio traffic stated that 97 people were on board at the time of the general emergency. The second engine was reportedly out, with "two hours of fuel remaining."
Per the Federal Aviation Authority, the Southwest flight "landed safely at Los Angeles International Airport around 12:25 p.m. local time after the crew reported an engine issue."
However, the exact details of the emergency have not been revealed. LAX did note that "WN3396 landed without incident, arriving on Runway 25L."
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Southwest Also Released a Statement After the Incident
Southwest Airlines were quick to praise the crew in a statement released following the incident. "The Pilots followed established procedures and landed the aircraft uneventfully," they wrote, per NBC4.
"We appreciate the professionalism of our Pilots and Flight Crew. Southwest will accommodate our Customers on another aircraft to San Jose. Nothing is more important to Southwest than the Safety of our Customers and Employees."
This Comes After a Scary Flight Situation
This comes after a pretty scary situation plagued flights over in Europe. We reported on it when it happened - several flights were delayed or cancelled due to several bomb threats being made.
Planes in several cities including Copenhagen, Dublin, Helsinki, Madrid, Milan, and Warsaw were targeted.
One notable threat was a flight from Dublin to Rome that ended up being routed to western France because of a bomb threat. Luckily, all 157 souls on board ended out being safe - only after people were questioned "in groups of ten".
Although this incident clearly wasn't related, it's important to note that both general emergencies like the Southwest flight as well as the bomb threats are becoming more common. We hope that this is a trend that will change soon.
