A flight from Nebraska to Los Angeles made a quick turnaround just a few kilometres from the airport on Monday, after the pilot heard noises outside the cockpit and thought someone was trying to break in.
SkyWest flight 6569 took off 10 minutes early from from Omaha’s Eppley Airfield, leaving at 6:23 p.m. local time, according to information from FlightAware.com.
However, ABC and other news reports say there was a malfunction in the plane’s intercom system that meant flight attendants could not contact the cockpit, which was locked as is standard practice on flights.
Unable to reach the cockpit by intercom, they started banging on the cockpit door. The captain, hearing that sound and unable to reach the cabin crew from his end, declared an emergency and returned to the Omaha airfield, landing just 36 minutes after takeoff.
The plane, an Embraer ERJ 175 with a capacity of about 80 passengers, was still climbing and was only about 65 kilometres from the airport at an altitude of about 10,000 feet when it turned around.
