BALTIMORE — More than 150 Delta passengers are safe after their plane was forced to make an emergency landing due to engine failure on Monday.
The plane made a safe emergency landing in Raleigh, North Carolina about an hour into the flight from Atlanta to Baltimore.
"The Captain came on the loudspeaker and said that we had lost an engine and that they were making preparations to have an emergency landing," passenger Jose Bahamonde-Gonzalez said.
Avery Porch was sitting next to her boyfriend Tyler Kreuger in the emergency seat.
"After we heard the boom we just saw all this smoke come up into the cabin, and that's when we really started freaking out," Porch said. "It started slowing down a bit the air cut off."
People were frantic--preparing to open the door at a moment's notice to try and escape.
"I was about to the first person to jump off and I was like, 'oh my gosh,'" Porch said. "This is a 30-something pound door. I'm going to have to throw it in the seat and jump off and actually help people out."
Panicked people started to fear the worst.
"I pulled out my phone, and I know I didn't have service," Kreuger said. "I just texted my mom 'I love you', I texted my dad 'I love you.'"
"I had a weird, eerie sense of calm over me, like I almost knew that they were going to take care of it, and they did," Porch said. "I don't think I'd be timid getting on a plane again being reassured that they handled it the way they did."
Delta released a statement apologizing for the inconvenience and passengers said they were given a $30 food voucher while they waited to leave Raleigh.
"Delta needs to retire those MD-80's, they are too old," said Bahamonde-Gonzalez.
The flight was originally supposed to land in Baltimore around 2 p.m. local time, but the passenger didn't reach their destination until around 8:30 p.m.
This story was originally published by Eddie Kadhim on WMAR in Baltimore.
