Alaska Airlines flight makes emergency landing in Spokane

An Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing in Spokane after smoke filled the plane’s cabin Tuesday morning.

Alaska Flight 2372 was en route from Seattle to Spokane with 75 passengers on board when smoke began filling the cabin about 15 minutes before landing, Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said. Because the plane was already on approach to Spokane, it was able to land safely at 8:15 a.m.

Bill Johnson was seated in the front of the plane. He said flight attendants passed out wet towels and encouraged people to bend over to avoid breathing in too much smoke.

“You couldn’t see the back of the plane too well. It was that thick of smoke. If it had happened anytime sooner in the flight I’m sure it would have turned around,” he said. He said people on board were nervous, but everybody kept calm.

Passengers walked off the plane, which parked far from the terminal to mitigate fire risk. Spokane International Airport firefighters searched the plane and confirmed there was no fire. None of the passengers needed medical attention, Egan said.

A passenger on the flight tweeted a video of passengers standing on the tarmac in Spokane after the emergency landing.

The incident shut down the main runway at the Spokane International Airport for about an hour Tuesday morning, causing two inbound flights to be delayed, the airport said in a news release. Those flights had to wait until the main runway was reopened to land because of low visibility conditions.

Air traffic was shifted to the alternate runway during the closure.

The plane, a Bombardier Q400, has been taken out of service while Alaska investigates the cause of the smoke. The incident is not expected to cause delays in Alaska service, Egan said.

One Alaska flight scheduled to leave for Seattle later Tuesday morning out of Spokane was delayed, and an afternoon flight was canceled, but those changes were made earlier Tuesday and were not related to the incident, Egan said.