An American Airlines flight from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Boston had to make an emergency landing in Little Rock after crew reported smoke in the cockpit, affording to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Flight 2436, a Boeing 757 with 139 people on board, was originally scheduled to arrive in Boston at 9:40 p.m. Eastern Time. It landed in Little Rock at 7 p.m. Central Time (8 p.m. EDT) after being diverted, according to Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the Southwest Region of the FAA.

Lunsford said American Airlines sent a new plane to pick up the passengers and deliver them to Boston. American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner confirmed that the new plane left Little Rock at 9:45 Central Time (10:45 EDT) and landed safely in Boston at 11:44 p.m. Eastern Time.

(UPDATE: The times American Airlines gave for this flight were wrong. Three passengers aboard the flight emailed Blast and the FAA has confirmed that the plane did not land in Boston until nearly 4 a.m. Eastern Time. We are unsure why American was unable to keep track of its airplane.)

A Northeastern University alumna was on the flight and sent a chilling Mobile Facebook status update after the emergency landing.

“My plane caught on fire at 30k feet. We had an emergency landing in Arkansas and we almost died. I’m okay and hoping just to get home safely. I love all of you,” she wrote.

This was the third flight with a Boston connection that had to be diverted or returned to the airport in the past week. On Saturday, American Airlines flight 1937 from Boston to San Juan, Puerto Rico had to return to Boston after a smell of smoke from the rear bathroom. On July 22, engine trouble forced Air France Flight 322 to return to Boston Logan International Airport just 31 minutes after takeoff.

By the way: We mistakenly reported the origin of the flight as San Diego in an early version of this story.

About The Author

John Guilfoil is the editor-in-chief of Blast: Boston's Online Magazine and the Blast Magazine Network. He can be reached at [email protected]. Tweet @johnguilfoil.

4 Responses

  1. TL

    The flight has just landed in Boston at 3:56 AM – around 7 hours late.

    Reply
  2. JMG

    And what did American Airlines do for their inconvenienced passengers? Nothing!
    Several verbal apologies “sorry for the inconvenience”.

    Not a meal or drink voucher, not credit on future flights….nada.

    Reply
  3. jwh

    I have flown Jet Blu out of Boston and Virgin out of Worcester thier planes are newer with more amenities AA planes seem to be older and not as well maintained. I was on that flight also they should have told us they were going to make a steep descend when they started it was unnerving when it started to descend not knowing what was happpening they told us later they were going to land at little rock. After viewing differentarticles on all the same problems they have had I will not use them again unless I have to. I had my wife youngest daughter and two grand children with me.

    Reply
  4. EG

    I refuse to fly American Airlines ever again! I always seem to encounter problems with them – and I was absolutely terrified on this flight. TOO MANY emergency landings have been happening with this airlines in the past few months alone (Google “AA, emergency landing”). They should not be allowed to fly without updating ALL their aircrafts and equipment!!!

    Reply

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