An Orlando flight bound for Bogota, Colombia was forced to perform an emergency landing in Fort Lauderdale after the cabin filled with smoke, injuring four crew members.
Spirit Flight NK1921 departed Orlando International Airport just after 11 a.m. on Thursday, August 3, according to data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration. The flight was bound for El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, with arrival in the country scheduled for around 2 p.m.
About an hour into the flight, as the plane made its way over Cuba, smoke became present in the cabin.
The plane’s crew declared an emergency and, at around 12:20 p.m., the airplane turned around in between Cuba and Jamaica to head back to the United States for an emergency landing.
The airplane, an Airbus A320neo, landed safely at Fort Lauderdale International Airport at around 1:50 p.m., according to a FlightAware tracking log.
Approximately 138 passengers were on board at the time of the incident.
Although no injuries were reported among the passengers, four of the cabin crew members received minor injuries from the smoke. The pilots were uninjured in the incident.
The plane eventually departed from Fort Lauderdale just before 5 p.m. and reached Bogotá at 7:08 p.m.
Just two days before the Spirit Airlines flight was diverted, two passengers received minor injuries during a Southwest Flight after a nose tire on the aircraft blew out.
In June, a Spirit Airlines flight was forced to return to the Orlando International Airport shortly after take-off when the airplane began descending due to an engine failure. No injuries were reported in that incident, and passengers were able to reach their final destination about five hours after their scheduled arrival.