Flight operations at Newark Liberty International Airport were “temporarily suspended” Wednesday after smoke in the cockpit of a JetBlue plane prompted an emergency landing.
According to a USA Today report, the smoke was caused by an engine problem.
The news outlet, citing officials, said the JetBlue flight to West Palm Beach, Fla., had to return to Newark immediately after takeoff around 5:55 p.m. local time.
“The crew of an Airbus A320 reported smoke in the cockpit,” the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said, temporarily suspending some arrivals at the airport.
Passengers were safely evacuated from the plane using chutes, USA Today officials said. No injuries were reported. However, according to a KOMO report, one of the 122 passengers on board was taken to the hospital after reporting chest pain.
After confirming the incident to USA Today, JetBlue said the emergency landing was due to a “reported engine issue and smoke in the cabin.”
“Safety is JetBlue’s highest priority,” the carrier said in a statement. “We are focused on supporting our customers and crew members and will work closely with the appropriate federal authorities to investigate what happened.”
At 6:35 p.m. ET, Newark Airport posted: “Flight operations at Newark Liberty Airport are temporarily suspended while an aircraft is removed from the taxiway due to an earlier incident.”
The airport resumed flight operations at 7 p.m., according to the port authority.
The FAA is investigating the incident.
In a separate incident Wednesday, an unruly passenger forced a Delta Air Lines flight to return to the Houston airport shortly after takeoff. The incident was reported on Flight 2557 from Hobby Airport in Houston to Atlanta.
The airline confirmed in a statement that the male passenger had displayed “unruly and unlawful behavior towards other customers” and was met by police after the flight returned to the airport.
However, Delta Air Lines denied reports that the passenger had tried to enter the cockpit.
A Houston police spokesman said when officers were called, dispatch said a person was trying to break into the cockpit. Officers detained one man, said a spokeswoman, who had not heard of any reported injuries.
The flight took off again and arrived in Atlanta about 90 minutes late, Delta said, which did not elaborate on the passenger’s behavior.
Last year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy launched an aviation civility campaign, noting that the FAA had seen a 400 percent increase in in-flight flare-ups from 2019 and 13,800 unruly passenger incidents from 2021.