Pretty remote..... - Nødlanding på Aleutene - Curt Lewis

Delta passengers aboard Beijing-Seattle flight stranded on Alaskan island after 'potential engine issue' forces landing


Delta flight 9950 en route to pickup passengers of flight 128, which was diverted to Shemya Island off the coast of Alaska. (Courtesy of FlightAware.com)

The carrier sent another aircraft to pick up the 194 passengers. The flight back to Seattle is scheduled to land at about 9 p.m.

A Delta Airlines flight from Beijing to Seattle was forced to land on a remote Alaskan island Monday after pilots were alerted to a "potential engine issue," leaving almost 200 hundred on board stranded for more than 12 hours.

The carrier sent another aircraft to pick up the 194 passengers, Delta spokeswoman Savannah Huddleston said in an emailed statement. She didn't have more information on the engine problem.

The diverted plane, flight DL 128, was a Boeing 767-300ER. The plane sent from Seattle to pick up the passengers landed at Eareckson Air Station at 1:10 p.m. Seattle time, about 11 hours after their arrival, according to data from FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. It was scheduled to turn around and come back after spending about three hours on the ground, arriving in Seattle at about 9 p.m.

The flight was diverted to Shemya Island, which is part of the Aleutian chain off the coast of Alaska. The airline has sent maintenance technicians, customer service agents and a new crew to work on the flight back to Seattle, Huddleston said.

Eareckson Air Station serves as an Air Force refueling hub and an emergency landing site for civilian aircraft. Shemya Island is 1,450 miles from Anchorage.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman couldn't be reached because of the partial federal government shutdown.

University of Washington graduate Zhen Tian, 22, said her parents were on the flight coming to visit Seattle for the first time. It was her mother's first international flight and she was nervous, especially because she doesn't speak English, Zhen said.

"I bet she is so nervous by now," Zhen said on Monday.

Around 6 a.m. Monday, Zhen checked her parents' flight to make sure it hadn't been delayed. She was surprised to see the plane had landed in Alaska, and she hadn't received information from Delta. She said she called the airline's customer-service line and was relieved to hear the plane had landed safely, but is still worried because she hasn't heard from her parents. She assumed they don't have cell service.

Zhen said she plans to keep checking for flight updates the rest of the night.

"Delta apologizes to customers for the delay and has sent another aircraft to continue the flight to Seattle," Huddleston said. "The safety of our customers and crew is always Delta's top priority."