A Delta Air Lines flight carrying 174 passengers and six crew members dropped roughly 27,000 feet in about 10 minutes following an unexpected cabin pressurization issue, forcing an emergency diversion to Las Vegas in an experience one passenger described as “pretty traumatic.”
The Boeing 737-900ER was traveling from Los Angeles International Airport to Salt Lake City on September 6 when the system failed. Air traffic control recordings captured the cockpit crew initiating the emergency maneuver.
“Delta 2311 currently [in] rapid descent,” the crew can be heard telling controllers. “We’d like to get down to 9,000, and we're direct [to] Las Vegas.”
When an air traffic controller asked if the emergency oxygen masks had deployed, the pilot responded, “Affirmative.”
Passengers were confused as the plane dropped and oxygen masks fell. One traveler, sharing an account of the incident on Reddit, described it as “pretty traumatic,” noting that the scariest part “wasn’t even the descent — it was not knowing what was going on.”
“Flight attendants were trying to make announcements with their masks on and it was almost impossible to hear them,” the passenger wrote. “The cabin was confused and pretty panicked.”
Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, a retired U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter pilot with nearly 40 years of flying experience, told Fox News that such a pressurization occurrence “is an extremely rare issue” in the United States. He explained that pilots facing this scenario must land as soon as practical at the closest airfield with a suitable runway to get the aircraft on the ground safely.
The plane landed safely at Harry Reid International Airport, where travelers exited normally and Delta arranged a replacement aircraft to continue the journey to Salt Lake City.
“As safety comes before everything else at Delta, the flight crew of Delta flight 2311 LAX-SLC followed their training and procedures to safely bring the aircraft to optimal altitude when an unexpected pressurization issue occurred,” a Delta spokesperson told Fox News.
