NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Travelers aboard a recent Delta Air Lines flight faced a mid-air scare when oxygen masks suddenly dropped into the passenger cabin. A pressurization issue occurred aboard Delta Flight 2311 on September 6, prompting the crew to take the plane to a lower altitude and divert to Las Vegas, a Delta spokesperson told Fox News Digital. The flight was carrying 174 passengers and six crew members. ‘WE NEED TO RETURN IMMEDIATELY,’ FLIGHT CREW WARNS AS PILOT HEALTH EMERGENCY DEVELOPS “As safety comes first at Delta, the crew of Delta Flight 2311 LAX-SLC followed their training and procedures to safely bring the aircraft to an optimal altitude when an unexpected pressurization issue occurred,” the spokesperson said. The flight, traveling from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, descended approximately 27,000 feet in about 10 minutes while oxygen masks were deployed in the cabin, according to reports. One flight was forced to rapidly descend about 27,000 feet in 10 minutes after the plane experienced an unexpected pressurization problem. (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport/NurPhoto/Getty Images; Yuriko Nakao/Getty Images)The news of the rapid descent could be heard in communications between the pilots and air traffic control. “Delta 2311 currently [in] rapid descent. We would like to go down to 9,000 and we are direct. [to] Las Vegas,” a pilot said in an air traffic control recording, according to reports. When an air traffic controller asked, “Is oxygen deployed?”, the pilot responded, “Yes.” The plane descended quickly; the flight landed in Las Vegas (iStock) “Delta sincerely apologizes to our customers for their experience and thanks our flight crews and other ground support teams for their professionalism,” the spokesperson said. Matthew “Whiz” Buckley of Florida, a retired pilot from U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter with nearly 40 years of flying experience, said such a pressurization occurrence “is an extremely rare problem” in the United States. MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES In a case like Delta’s, he told Fox News Digital that pilots in this scenario would need to “land as soon as possible, meaning what’s the closest airfield with a nice, long, suitable runway where we can take this on.” thing to the ground safely. “The incident drew attention online. A passenger aboard the flight spoke about the chaos inside the cabin. descent: he didn’t know what was happening,” the passenger wrote on Reddit. “The flight attendants were trying to make announcements with their masks on, and it was almost impossible to hear them.” Delta arranged for another plane (not pictured) so passengers could continue their trip. (Robert Smith/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images) The passenger was reportedly asleep when a fiancé said something about what was happening. “It took another second of ‘Is this real or am I dreaming?’ before putting on our masks,” the traveler wrote. “I was desperately trying to see if I could get on WiFi because I didn’t know if I was going to have to text ‘I love you,'” the person added. “It took me another second to think, ‘Is this real or am I dreaming?’ before we put on our masks.” Other travelers responded to the post by sharing their own experiences with oxygen masks and rapid descents. A Reddit user recalled a previous Delta flight that descended from approximately 34,000 feet to 10,000 feet while passengers wore oxygen masks. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP “The several minutes of rapid descent… [were] “pretty jarring until the captain finally pulled the microphone once we were at a safe altitude,” the commenter wrote, adding that the passengers remained silent and focused on breathing through their masks. Kelly McGreal is a production assistant for Fox News Digital’s lifestyle team.
