United Airlines LA bound flight makes emergency landing

“After receiving reports of multiple ill customers, our crew deployed the oxygen masks and elected to divert to Grand Junction”, she said.

“UA447 on the way to LA just emergency landed at Grand Junction – loss of oxygen in the cabin”, another passenger, David Schamis, tweeted with his photo.

A United Airlines Airbus had to make an emergency landing at the Grand Junction Regional Airport Wednesday morning due to a medical issue onboard.

United Flight 447 left Denver at 8:08 a.m. and arrived in Grand Junction at 9:37 a.m., according to United Airlines.

“When we got on scene and boarded the aircraft, our firefighters did not detect any abnormal oxygen levels, [carbon dioxide] levels, and everyone was alert and oriented”, said Shawn Montgomery, a spokesman for the Grand Junction Fire Department.

Dohm said there were 150 passengers and six crew aboard the aircraft. All of the passengers were able to walk off the plane, and one person was taken to the hospital for evaluation. Oxygen masks had been deployed but it’s unclear what was the chain of events that led up to it. “That might have been a precaution to the medical event, or an aircraft issue”, Montgomery said. Flight attendants began attending to the passenger.

There were initial reports of smoke in the cabin, but Montgomery said it may have been dust.

“There was an announcement that there was a problem with the air and they were going to drop the masks”, Kissinger said.

Emergency personnel in Grand Junction boarded the plane on the tarmac “with full oxygen suits and masks on”, Schamis added.

“You do kinda feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere”, Kissinger said of the Grand Junction airport.