American Airlines Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Lubbock, TX
Passengers heading home for the holidays were held up due to mechanical issue.
-- Passengers heading home for the holidays were held up in Texas after an American Airlines flight from Miami to Los Angeles was diverted due to a mechanical issue.
American Airlines flight 295 landed in Lubbock, Texas, due to what the airline called a "mechanical issue." The FAA said the Airbus 321 landed "after declaring an emergency for engine oil warning light."
The flight was carrying 186 passengers and a crew of six, according to the airline. The FAA said the plane landed "without incident."
Passengers were loaded onto a replacement aircraft, which due to the short length of the runway in Lubbock, couldn't take on the amount of fuel necessary to make it to Los Angeles, the airline said. The aircraft will have to land briefly in Dallas to refuel before continuing to its final destination.
The plane sat on the runway for hours with passengers on board, with the door left open for those who would rather try to catch a different flight in the morning, passenger Ben Curtis told ABC News. Their luggage was loaded and then removed for re-weighing, while passengers waited on board, according to Curtis.
Flight 295 departed Miami at 9:43 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday and landed in Lubbock at 12:31 p.m. Central Time. American Airlines' current estimate has the plane touching down at LAX at 2:20 a.m. Pacific Time on Thursday, nearly 20 hours after it departed Miami.