An American Airlines flight made an emergency landing Monday night in Nebraska, after the pilots could not reach the flight attendants and heard someone outside the cockpit door.
Flight 6469 departed Omaha’s Eppley Airfield at 6:41 p.m. local time bound for Los Angeles but quickly turned back, landing just 18 minutes later.
Soon after takeoff, communication between the cockpit and cabin crew was lost. Passengers reported seeing flight attendants knocking on the cockpit door in an effort to alert the pilots.
Hearing the knocking and receiving no response over the interphone, the pilots mistakenly believed there was an attempted cockpit intrusion. They declared an emergency and immediately returned to Omaha.
After landing, the captain apologized to passengers for the abrupt turnaround and explained the situation.
The Federal Aviation Administration released a statement after the incident.
“SkyWest Flight 6569 landed safely after returning to Eppley Airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, around 7:45 p.m. local time on Monday, Oct. 20, after declaring an emergency when the pilot could not contact the cabin crew,” the statement said. “After landing, it was determined there was a problem with the inter-phone system and the flight crew was knocking on the cockpit door.”
