Get down. Get low. Get out. But first you have to land.
Watch the video of the evacuation from KNBC-TV
The pilot of an American Airlines 757 apparently takes fire safety seriously. Over the Pacific, heading to Honolulu, with 188 passengers and six crew members on-board there was a report of an odor of smoke in the cabin. Making an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport almost an hour later, he stopped the plane and met the fire trucks in the middle of one of the busiest runways in the country.
Unsure of what was causing the odor, the order came to evacuate the plane immediately. On live television, viewers watched as emergency slides were immediately deployed and the passengers quickly left the plane.
Firefighters ran up to help out at the bottom of the chutes. Among their first efforts was to move passengers away from the jet and slow everyone down after watching someone go head first onto the runway. You can see that at on the KNBC-TV coverage when the timer shows about 1:04 left in the clip.
LAFD spokesman Brian Humphrey says six passengers were treated for bumps, bruises and other minor injuries received during the evacuation.
Firefighters with thermal imaging cameras could not find the source of the odor.
The emergency ruined a publicity event involving some of those same firefighters. Fire trucks were supposed to spray streams of water to welcome Airbus 380 — the world’s largest jetliner — flown by Emirates Airlines.
The emergency delayed the Emirates flight for about 45 minutes and the ceremony was scrapped.
