Unusual odor forces second JetBlue return to JFK

On Tuesday a JetBlue flight that had departed from New York’s Kennedy airport and was on route to Syracuse with approximately 60 passengers on board, was forced to return to JFK after the pilot detected an “unusual” smell in the cabin, according to a spokesperson for the carrier.

This was the second incident involving a JetBlue plane turning back due to “unusual” odors in a single week.

Shortly after departing for Syracuse at 9:50 am on Tuesday, the pilot of flight 68 reported that there was “an unusual odor in the cabin,” said Alison Eshelman, a spokesperson for JetBlue. The flight returned Kennedy, on the pilot’s decision, but no emergency was declared, Eshelman added.

At 10:10 am, the Embraer E190 landed at JFK and taxied under its own power to the gate, where the flights passengers deplaned and were accommodated on other flights. There were no injuries reported, Eshelman said.

By late Tuesday afternoon, the cause of the unusual odor was still unknown: “Our maintenance crew is currently evaluating the aircraft,” the spokesperson for the Kew Gardens, N.Y.-based airline said.

A few days earlier, on August 26, another JetBlue flight, also operated on an Embraer 190, was forced to return to Kennedy Airport when the pilot reported a smell in the cockpit, which seemed to be smoke.

www.jetblue.com