TED 1491 Quarantined @ LAS (22-JUL-2006)

[fly.mcs]

I'm sure most of you read in the A.net forums about the Ted flight that was quarantined at LAS on Saturday night. I was actually there at that concourse (go figure). I was scheduled on Delta 1872 back to New York, departing at 22:10 PST (10:10PM). Once we arrived at the concourse for the D Gates, the entire wing was shut down and closed off. All the stores had their gates down, police had the area roped off with yellow caution tape, and fire officials were in the area. In the back (near Gate D42 or just next to Gate D42) was a crowded scene. Police were taking chairs from the center eating area and bringing them over to the gate. I saw a few get pulled away on stretchers. The flight had arrived 3 hours earlier but things were still hectic. About an hour after I arrived there, the police removed the tape and began letting passengers from the Ted flight exit. I asked a few passengers what was going on. The flight from DEN, originating in CUN, had a sick child who vomitted. The vomit was cleaned with a solution containing ammonia. Passengers said no food was served so it could not have been food poisoning. They came to the conclusion it was the ammonia; a total of 11 people fell ill (as posted by the news). The police told us 4 crew members became ill.

I was scheduled to depart gate D38, but the gate was switched to D7 (which was across to the other wing of the concourse). Once at D7, they switched us back to D38 (another long walk..). To my luck, the Pink Song pulled into D38. WAS I HAPPY!!! Unfortunately, he was supposed to pull into D36. So, our gate was switched to D36, and I got a crap green plane instead of the sexy pink.. oh well. Flight ended up departing at 23:44 PST (11:44PM).

[T-Bird76]

Ammonia in a closed space?? Wow that's smart. They should have thrown a little bleach to really make things interesting.

[fly.mcs]

HA! My dad actually did that in our toilet by mistake; mixing ammonia and bleach. Smoke started coming up, so he quickly flushed it. That seriously would've made more passengers sick (toxic fumes ?) And yes, ammonia in a closed space is not good.

[hiss srq]

Ha I wonder who the GS provider is down there. Obviously not the brightest bunch on the planet for sure when it comes to chemicals and airplanes or human well being in general.

[dbudd]

I was out there in the Sunset viewing area when I heard on my scanner that departures had been put on hold. The tower reported that an emergency was coming in from the east to land on runway 25 right. The 7's were active so that meant all departing aircraft had to be held.

In 5 minutes or so..I saw a Ted airbus appear in the distance and come in to land on the right side. As they was slowing the tower asked if they needed any assistance and the pilot radioed back." No they are waiting for us at the gate". The aircraft taxied around to the back of the D gates and I lost view.

After awhile I moved down Sunset and indeed saw lots of emergency vehicles attending the plane.

The next day...the local news reported it was a cleaning solution that made everyone sick..

But that was the second emergency of the day. A few hours before I missed the call on the scanner but a US Air flight had an indicator on in the cockpit and declared an emergency. This time they rolled fire and they met them after they landed. The pilot reported he wanted to clear the runway as he thought they were leaking hydraulic fluid. He held on the taxi way between runways and fire followed him back to the A gates..

http://www.jetphotos.net/palbum/viewphoto.php?id=180

Later they sent a lone man out to clean up the mess....the aircraft had indeed leak some fluids..

See Tommy...you missed everything after you left!!

Dave