EchoVictor

On the Dec 10th Delta Flight 39 from AMS-ATL, we ended up making a borderline emergency landing at Dulles because of smoke in the cabin. We were between New York and Washington when a smoky haze developed in the main cabin that smelled of an electrical fire. Flight attendants suspended snack service and tried to locate the problem. After about 4 minutes of running around and speaking on the phone to the cockpit, the captain came on the PA and said we were landing as soon as possible in Washington. The captain sounded a little flustered in his updating announcements, so much so that the FO had to handle them. (Which is fine...someone has to fly the plane!)

Spoilers were partially deployed to help lose altitude faster and we landed about 30(?) minutes later at Dulles. Before landing, the crew announced that they had completed the cabin smoke checklist and were going to be making a normal landing. Shutting down all electronics and the heat in the cabin seemed to help, and the smoke had largely dissipated by the time we landed. Dulles "rolled the trucks" and we were greeted by about a dozen fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. After stopping upon landing briefly for an external check by the fire department, Dulles' renowned people-movers got everyone off the plane and into the airport, where we cleared immigration as usual.

I called SMS (Delta's special member services) which got me booked on the next flight to ATL (about an hour after touching down at IAD), and I saw a couple other people from the AMS flight on the plane with me. Apparently anyone who checked luggage experienced a longer delay and had to catch a subsequent flight from Dulles. Glad this didn't happen over the ocean! :-)

[This message has been edited by EchoVictor (edited 12-11-2001).]