FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A Southwest Airlines flight headed from Santa Ana to Sacramento on Wednesday was diverted to Fresno after what the company described as “a maintenance indication” – but one of the passengers on board said it was “a bit more than that.”
Southwest Airlines Flight 3113 made an emergency landing Wednesday morning at Fresno Yosemite International Airport. A passenger on that flight told YourCentralValley.com everything was fine when the flight began, but soon began to hear “a very loud thumping noise.”
Southwest flight makes emergency landing at Fresno’s airport
“Mid-flight, I was sitting on the right-hand side of the plane directly over the right engine, just in front of it, so I could see the full engine. As we were flying we started hearing a very loud thumping noise.”
The passenger then described looking forward at the flight attendant and described fear washing over her face.
“She immediately stopped what she was doing and got on the phone.”
According to the passenger, the captain said there was “an engine failure” and that they were going to land in Fresno.
“After the captain made that statement, the flight attendant came back to where I was sitting and she asked the people behind me to open up their window shade and said ‘the captain asked me to come see if we can see anything on the engine’.”
According to the passenger, when the plane landed there was a bit of applause. FlightAware.com describes the plane used that day as a Boeing 737-700 (twin jet).
In a statement released by Southwest Airlines on the day of the emergency landing, officials said their pilots “received a maintenance indication while en route to Sacramento.” No injuries were reported and Southwest Airlines organized another aircraft to take the passengers to their destination.
YourCentralValley.com has requested a further statement from Southwest Airlines in response to the passenger’s description of what happened.
The incident took place less than two weeks after another Southwest Airlines flight was forced to make another emergency landing at Fresno Yosemite International Airport.
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