Omaha, Nebraska, to Los Angeles is a roughly 3½-hour flight, but on Oct. 20, American Airlines flight 6469 landed after an abrupt 18 minutes, returning to Omaha.
The quick U-turn flight ended after pilots lost communication with the flight attendants and feared that the banging on the cockpit door was a sign that someone was trying to break into the cockpit.
“About 10 minutes into the flight, all of a sudden, we took a very hard U-turn,” ESPN reporter and former Beacon Journal sports reporter Brian Windhorst recounted on The Hoop Collective podcast. “We are turning around, going east, and we are no longer going up. So, I’m like, something is going on.”
Looking up from his seat, Windhorst saw the flight attendants at the cockpit door talking. Then Windhorst heard rapid knocking. He saw one flight attendant pick up the phone to the cockpit.
Who is Brian Windhorst?: Akron RubberDucks to give ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst the bobblehead treatment
“For a split second, I wondered if there was something going on in the cockpit, but then I realized that we were descending, it’s OK,” Windhorst told his co-hosts.
Without warning, the landing gear dropped, forcing flight attendants to run to their seats.
LAS VEGAS, NV – JULY 27: Sportswriter Brian Windhorst attends a practice session at the 2018 USA Basketball Men’s National Team minicamp at the Mendenhall Center at UNLV on July 27, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Police surround the airplane on landing
The flight had taken off at 6:41 p.m. local time, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking website. By about 7 p.m., it was on the ground.
During that time, passengers were left without an explanation, Windhorst said. No one announced the decision to turn around.
Windhorst deduced that the plane itself was not the problem, noting that there was no smoke or “funny noises.” The cabin seemed fine, so he wondered if a pilot had a medical emergency.
Landing without any issues, Windhorst looked out the window and saw emergency lights dotting the runway. He then saw police officers and cruisers surround the plane.
“This is not a medical thing now,” he recalled. “But there is nothing happening in the cabin, and there is still no announcement.”
Three officers entered the plane. Two went to the cockpit, and the third asked if everyone was OK.
“I’m like, ‘You tell me. We’re fine,'” Windhorst said before chuckling.
Then, a pilot opened the door.
May 22, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; ESPN television personality Stephen A. Smith (left) and sportswriter Brian Windhorst (right) prior to game two of the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA Playoffs between the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Philips Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
So, why did the pilots ground the plane?
Windhorst said the problem boiled down to a problem with the flight crew’s microphone, which American Airlines and SkyWest confirmed.
Flight attendants accidentally left the microphone open, so the pilots heard static, Windhorst explained. The Federal Aviation Administration said in a media statement that “there was a problem with the interphone system.”
“(The pilots) were trying to get a hold of the flight attendants. They said they tried to at least eight times,” Windhorst said.
When the flight attendants started banging on the cockpit door, the pilots feared someone was trying to break into the cockpit, he explained. The pilots, he said, declared an emergency and told air traffic control, triggering a police response.
Despite a dramatic 20 minutes, no one was injured. When the flight took off, it was roughly five hours late.
Bryce Buyakie covers courts and public safety for the Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at bbuyakie@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @bryce_buyakie.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Brian Windhorst of Akron, ESPN recalls sudden airplane landing
