JetBlue Passengers Taken To Hospital After Flight Makes Emergency Landing

Six passengers aboard a JetBlue Airlines flight Monday from New York to Palm Beach, Florida, were evaluated by medics and two who were taken to a hospital for a burning sensation in their eyes after mechanical issues forced an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina.

Wake County EMS spokesman Jeffrey Hammerstein confirmed the report Monday to the Associated Press and noted passengers reported both a burning sensation in their eyes and headaches. None of the medical issues were life-threatening.

Flight tracker Flightaware reported that the aircraft departed LaGuardia Airport in New York at 7:29 a.m. EDT. After being diverted to the North Carolina airport, the plane eventually landed at Palm Beach International Airport at 4:52 p.m. — more than six hours late to its destination.

JetBlue did not provide specifics of the incident. A representative for the New York-based company did not immediately return International Business Times’ request for comment.

There have been multiple reports of odors grounding JetBlue flights in recent months.

On Aug. 16, two JetBlue crew members reportedly fell ill aboard a flight from Boston to Charleston, South Carolina. The carrier later told IBT that the source of the odor was nail polish.

Six days earlier, a JetBlue flight from Boston to San Diego was forced to make an emergency landing in Buffalo after a gasoline smell from the wing of the plane caused dizziness for the pilot and two flight attendants.

“They were saying that there was an incident on the plane where somebody was having a medical issue,” passenger Michael Feuerstein told Fox-affiliate WFXT in Boston. “People were having headaches on the plane. There were children. The smell could be smelled from the wings of the plane to the actual back of the plane.”

Feuerstein also said he saw “fluid leaking from an overhead baggage compartment,” according to reports.

A JetBlue spokesman said that the incident was under investigation.

In July, a JetBlue flight from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York to Buffalo was forced to make an air return to JFK shortly after takeoff due to an odor in the cockpit. In June, a JetBlue flight from Newark, New Jersey, to West Palm Beach, Florida, was forced to land in Atlantic City, New Jersey, after smoke filled the cockpit.