Frontier Airlines Flight Rerouted Due To Noxious Odor In Cockpit

A flight headed from Las Vegas to Nashville carrying 178 passengers and six crew members got redirected to Albuquerque, New Mexico, Wednesday after the cockpit crew caught wind of an unusual smell.

Frontier Airlines said that Flight 1686 was rerouted from its original Nashville destination to New Mexico "out of an abundance of caution due to an odor in the cockpit," ABC-affiliate WKRN reported. The flight landed at Albuquerque International Sunport shortly after takeoff.

Quenton Lewis, who was among the 178 passengers aboard the flight, said he was headed home for Thanksgiving. He and other passengers were unsure why the flight had made an unscheduled descent.

"We started descending out of nowhere, and then out of nowhere the captain said 'prepare for landing,' and we landed a couple of minutes later," he told WKRN. "The whole time we was going down we didn’t know why we were landing."

Mechanics inspected the aircraft after it arrived and Frontier said the same plane will be used to travel to Nashville. Richard Oliver, a spokesman for the airline, confirmed the incident in a statement to the Tennessean but did not say what caused the smell.

"Safety is our number one priority and out of an abundance of caution this flight diverted due to an odor in the cockpit, this flight is expected to continue on to BNA shortly on the same aircraft," Oliver said.