A Cessna commuter plane belonging to Cape Air is surrounded by fire trucks after it was forced to return to the Lebanon Airport and make an emergency landing late Friday morning due to smoke in the cabin. Photo © Eric Francis
LEBANON - A regularly scheduled Cape Air flight was forced to turn around shortly after takeoff late Friday morning and make an emergency return to the Lebanon Airport after smoke was noticed in the cabin.
Six people were onboard the plane when the incident occurred shortly after 11 a.m., but all returned safely to the airport terminal after the plane landed without further incident, Lebanon Fire Chief Jim Wheatley explained.
The initial distress call to the Lebanon Tower by the pilot indicated a possible fire onboard due to the presence of smoke inside the plane and led responding Lebanon firefighters to call for a first alarm assignment from Lebanon, Hanover and Hartford, all of whom dispatched engines and ambulances to the airport, but by the time the plane landed less than ten minutes later the smoke had dissipated.
“It was a normal smooth landing,” the chief said. Firefighters manning engines from the city and a dedicated CFR (crash, fire, rescue) truck kept at the airport drove out to the plane immediately after it landed and walked around it but did not find any obvious cause for the smoke.
“We assume it was something mechanical,” the chief noted.
