A New York City-bound flight made an emergency midair U-turn shortly after taking off when the flight crew saw fire in the cockpit and noticed a “burnt electrical smell.” The incident took place after the Endeavor Air jet took off from Toronto, Canada, around 6:47 am on February 3. With 74 people on board, the flight was on its way to JFK Airport in Queens.
According to audio posted to YouTube, the pilot can be heard saying, “Hey Toronto departure! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” He noticed sparks flying from the jet’s windshield during the climb to peak altitude.
“This is Endeavor 4826, declaring an emergency. Just had a fire, a spark-up, an electrical fire, up in the cockpit. Looks like it’s out currently,” the pilot added. “Requesting return back to Toronto immediately.”
The air traffic controller asked the pilot to turn the Bombardier CRJ-900 around and begin to descend. The pilot is heard saying there were 74 people on board, and 9,000 pounds of fuel. The traffic controller asked if the plane was carrying any hazardous cargo, to which the pilot said there is not, “as far as we know.”
Shortly after, the pilot told another airport official that the fire was possibly out. “We had a spark-up and flare-up on our windshield, it looks like it does appear to be out,” he said. “We should be able to exit the runway, but we’ll have fire trucks take us all the way to the gate.”
The plane eventually flew into the airport, and the pilot was heard reiterating, “We did have an electrical fire.” “Looks like the windshield heater sparked up. That fire is out now,” he said. “We haven’t canceled the emergency yet.”
The plane landed 25 minutes after taking off. The pilot later told the operator of a ground vehicle, “There was an electrical fire on the captain’s side windshield here. We did not expect there was anything on the outside.” “It went out within approximately 30 seconds,” the pilot added.
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