Delta Flight With ‘Potential Engine Issue’ Makes Emergency Landing In Remote Island

A Delta Air Lines plane from Beijing to Seattle, Washington, was diverted on Monday and was forced to land on a remote island off the coast of Alaska, due to a potential engine issue.

Delta Flight 128 was carrying 194 passengers on board when it made an emergency landing in Shemya island, located 1,450 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The plane used the 10,000-foot runway at Eareckson Air Station on the island, which serves as an Air Force refueling hub. There were no reported injuries.

"Delta apologizes to customers for the delay and has sent another aircraft to continue the flight to Seattle. The safety of our customers and crew is always Delta’s top priority,” a statement from Delta said. The plane that departed from Seattle for the Shemya island carried a maintenance crew, customer service agents, and another crew to be in charge of the flight back.

Alex Yuan, a teacher at Utah Valley University, who was one of the passengers on the flight, told NBC-affiliated King5 that all of them had a very welcoming reception at the Eareckson Air Station after their emergency landing. Comfortable beds were provided for the civilians as they waited for the replacement flight.

“I really appreciate that safety was the priority of the company. That’s very good,” said Yuan. “Even though our flight was delayed for some hours, and especially today on Christmas, but we arrived here safely and we are very happy.”

However, he added that although the passengers were allowed to deplane after landing at the island, they were explicitly told not to take pictures or use their electronic devices outside the aircraft.

“We were informed [there was] something wrong. Actually, the captain was so nice and he said that we need to stop and we need to land for some issues,” he said.

The replacement flight reached the Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, with the passengers a little after 10 p.m. local time on the same day (2:00 a.m. EST, Tuesday).

Oregon Live reported that they could not reach a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman because the federal government was partially shut down.

The last time a commercial flight made an emergency landing in Shemya island was back in 2015, when a Cathay Pacific Flight CX884 from Hong Kong to Los Angeles, California, made a precautionary diversion. “Our preliminary inspection indicates that an equipment cooling fan below the cabin floor near cargo compartment had failed,” the airline company said in a statement at the time, USA Today reported.

Air Force officials said that all the 276 passengers on board the plane stayed inside the aircraft and watched movies during their time at the island. After a thorough examination of the aircraft, it continued to Anchorage. The passengers were then transferred to a relief plane sent over from Hong Kong, which carried them to Los Angeles International Airport.