American Airlines Flight 6469, operated by SkyWest, returned shortly after taking off from Omaha. (Representational Photo: X)
A flight from Omaha to Los Angeles was forced to turn back shortly after takeoff on Monday evening after the pilots mistakenly believed someone was trying to break into the cockpit.
American Airlines Flight 6469, operated by SkyWest, departed Eppley Airfield in Omaha at 18:41 local time but returned less than an hour later. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the crew had experienced a problem with the intercom system used to communicate between the cabin and the cockpit.
A member of the cabin crew, unable to speak with the pilots via the intercom, knocked on the locked cockpit door to alert them. The pilots, who had also heard static sounds over the system, feared that someone might be attempting to force entry, according to American Airlines.
It was later determined that the static noise was caused by the intercom being left on by accident.
“Because of the uncertainty, the pilots decided to land the plane,” SkyWest said in a statement. The aircraft, an Embraer E175 carrying about 80 passengers, landed safely at around 19:45.
Passenger Brian Windhorst, a basketball writer for ESPN, said he noticed the sudden change of course. “About 10 minutes in, we make a very hard U-turn,” he told reporters. “That wasn’t normal. There was no announcement.”
He added that he saw one of the flight attendants knock on the cockpit door “many, many times.”
After the aircraft landed, passengers were told that the crew had been unsure what was happening. In a video recorded by Windhorst and posted online by his wife, a crew member can be heard explaining: “Since we weren’t able to communicate with each other, we weren’t sure if something was going on with the aircraft or not. So that’s why we came back here as a precautionary measure.”
Windhorst said the aircraft was met by police. “We pull into a holding area, and are immediately surrounded by police cars,” he said. “Three police officers got on board, and one asked the passengers if they were OK.”
The plane eventually returned to the gate, and passengers disembarked before continuing their journey later that evening.
“The flight attendants and pilots might have been more unnerved than the passengers,” Windhorst said.
The flight took off again at 22:45 with the same pilots but a new cabin crew, arriving in Los Angeles about four hours behind schedule.
