The US Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the September 15 incident on a flight from Salt Lake City in the southwestern state of Utah to Portland, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest.
Washington, United States: US airline Delta apologized on Thursday after a recent flight had to make an emergency landing due to a cabin pressure problem, with local media reporting the incident caused passengers to bleed from the nose and ears.
The US Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating the September 15 incident on a flight from Salt Lake City in the southwestern state of Utah to Portland, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest.
Delta said in a statement emailed to AFP that the aircraft, carrying 140 passengers, “was unable to pressurize above 10,000 feet”.
After the plane landed, 10 people were checked or treated by medical personnel who met the flight at the gate, it added.
“We sincerely apologize to our customers for their experience on flight 1203 on Sept. 15,” the statement said.
“The flight crew followed procedures to return to SLC where our teams on the ground supported our customers with their immediate needs.”
Local station KSL TV interviewed passengers who described seeing people gripping their heads in pain or bleeding from their ears or noses not long after the plane took off.
Passenger Jaci Purser told KSL TV she felt a stabbing pain in her ear.
“I grabbed my ear, and I pulled my hand back, and there was blood on it,” she said.
Delta said the plane’s oxygen masks did not deploy.
The Boeing 737-900 aircraft was repaired and was back in service the day after the incident, Delta said.
The plane is not part of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet, which brought renewed scrutiny to the embattled aviation giant in January when a fuselage panel blew out of an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight, necessitating an emergency landing.
On September 15, 2023, a Delta Airlines flight from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Portland, Oregon, was forced to make an emergency landing due to a cabin pressure malfunction that led to a terrifying ordeal for passengers. The incident gained widespread media attention and sparked an investigation by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Delta issued a public apology for the event, as several passengers experienced severe physical symptoms such as nose and ear bleeding, along with intense pain, due to the sudden change in cabin pressure.
Flight 1203, a Boeing 737-900 aircraft carrying 140 passengers, took off from Salt Lake City without any indication of the impending crisis. Shortly after takeoff, passengers reported experiencing sharp, stabbing pains in their heads, ears, and noses. According to some passengers, the discomfort quickly escalated into a serious situation, with some individuals noticing blood coming from their ears or noses as the pressure inside the cabin fluctuated.
One passenger, Jaci Purser, recounted her harrowing experience in an interview with KSL TV, a local news station. “I grabbed my ear, and I pulled my hand back, and there was blood on it,” Purser explained. She was not alone; multiple passengers experienced similar symptoms, with some gripping their heads in pain as the pressure issues worsened.
The pilots, aware of the problem, quickly initiated an emergency landing, rerouting the plane back to Salt Lake City. Upon landing, medical personnel were on hand to assist the passengers. Although the majority of passengers did not require serious medical attention, 10 people were checked or treated by the responding medical teams.
In a statement released to the press, Delta Airlines expressed regret for the incident and assured the public that the crew followed the necessary safety protocols to ensure a safe landing. “We sincerely apologize to our customers for their experience on flight 1203 on Sept. 15,” the airline stated. Delta confirmed that the flight crew followed procedures by returning to Salt Lake City, where the airline’s ground teams were prepared to support the affected passengers.
One alarming detail noted in the aftermath was that the plane’s oxygen masks did not deploy during the incident. Normally, when cabin pressure issues arise, oxygen masks drop automatically to provide passengers with the necessary oxygen to cope with reduced air pressure. The failure of the masks to deploy could have worsened the situation, but Delta did not elaborate on why the masks failed or if this specific malfunction contributed to the passengers’ discomfort.
Delta also reported that the aircraft in question had been repaired and was returned to service the following day. Importantly, the airline clarified that the aircraft was not part of Boeing’s controversial 737 MAX fleet. The 737 MAX model had faced heightened scrutiny in recent years following multiple fatal crashes and other serious incidents. Delta emphasized that the plane involved in the September 15 incident was a 737-900, a different model from the 737 MAX.
The FAA, responsible for regulating and overseeing the safety of civil aviation in the United States, immediately launched an investigation into the incident. The key focus of the investigation is likely to center around what caused the cabin to depressurize and why the plane’s oxygen masks failed to deploy. Cabin depressurization, while rare, is a serious issue that can occur for several reasons, including structural failures, mechanical issues, or malfunctions in the pressurization system.
Pressurization in an aircraft cabin is essential for maintaining safe and comfortable conditions for passengers and crew. At cruising altitudes, the air pressure is too low for humans to breathe comfortably without assistance. Modern aircraft are designed to maintain a stable pressure inside the cabin equivalent to the air pressure found at lower altitudes, usually around 6,000 to 8,000 feet, even when the plane is flying much higher. However, if the pressurization system fails, the pressure inside the cabin can drop rapidly, potentially leading to hypoxia (lack of oxygen), decompression sickness, and physical symptoms like those experienced by passengers on Flight 1203.
It is not yet clear how long the FAA’s investigation will take or what specific conclusions it will reach, but the agency will likely assess both the technical malfunction and the crew’s handling of the emergency.
Cabin pressure malfunctions, though uncommon, can be extremely dangerous. In severe cases, rapid depressurization can lead to unconsciousness or even death if passengers are not given oxygen quickly enough. Commercial airliners typically fly at altitudes of 30,000 to 40,000 feet, where the air pressure and oxygen levels are far too low for humans to survive without pressurization.
When cabin pressure is lost, oxygen masks are supposed to deploy automatically to allow passengers to breathe while the plane descends to a safer altitude, typically below 10,000 feet. At this lower altitude, the air is thick enough for passengers to breathe without assistance. In the case of Flight 1203, however, the oxygen masks did not drop, raising concerns about whether the malfunction was related to a broader issue with the aircraft’s systems.
Passengers who experience sudden changes in pressure often report ear and sinus pain due to the pressure differences inside their bodies and the external environment. The Eustachian tubes, which help equalize pressure in the ears, may not adjust quickly enough, leading to discomfort or even ruptured eardrums, which could explain the bleeding experienced by some passenger.
Although Delta was quick to point out that the Boeing 737-900 involved in this incident was not part of the troubled 737 MAX fleet, the fact that the plane was a Boeing model still raised questions for some observers. Boeing, one of the largest aerospace companies in the world, has faced intense scrutiny in recent years due to a series of high-profile failures.
In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft crashed within months of each other, killing a total of 346 people. These crashes were linked to a software issue with the plane’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which prompted a global grounding of the 737 MAX fleet. Although Boeing has since worked to fix the problems with the 737 MAX, incidents like the one involving Delta’s Flight 1203 continue to remind the public of the potential dangers of air travel, particularly when technical malfunctions occur.
Additionally, in January 2023, an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 (also not a MAX) suffered a major structural failure when a fuselage panel blew off mid-flight, forcing an emergency landing. This incident further fueled concerns about the safety and durability of Boeing’s aircraft, although the company maintains that its planes meet the highest safety standards.
The September 15 incident on Delta Flight 1203 underscores the potential risks of air travel when things go wrong, even on a well-maintained aircraft operated by a major airline. While modern planes are designed with multiple layers of safety protocols, including backup systems and emergency procedures, malfunctions can still lead to dangerous situations for passengers and crew.
Delta’s swift apology and the FAA’s investigation will likely bring more clarity in the coming weeks or months, but for the passengers aboard that flight, the experience was a terrifying reminder of how fragile safety can sometimes feel at 30,000 feet.
