Lufthansa flight diverts to Boston after cockpit fills with smoke

A Lufthansa flight was forced to divert to Boston due to smoke filling up the aircraft’s cockpit.

Flight LH403 departed Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after 8pm on Monday evening, heading to Frankfurt, Germany.

According to FlightAware, the plane was west of Nova Scotia, Canada, when it turned around to make an unscheduled landing at Boston’s Logan International Airport, just 50 minutes into the flight.

Massachusetts State Police confirmed to Fox News that the flight was diverted when a “technical irregularity” caused some smoke in the cockpit.

“The crew utilised oxygen masks during that time. The plane landed at Logan at 10:25 pm without further incident,” Massachusetts State Police said in a statement.

Passengers speaking to NBC10 Boston on Monday night said they didn’t smell any smoke and that oxygen masks did not deploy in the cabin, but some did experience turbulence.

“I mean I was kind of scared,” said passenger Ava Rankin. “I’ve been on a lot of flights in my life and I was like, just like, please let us be safe, let it be okay, because we were right over the ocean, so I didn’t really know what was going to happen.”

“They told us there were electrical issues and they had to land the plane. And most people on the flight, it was a connecting flight, so no one’s able to get to their connections anymore. So I guess everyone’s trying to rebook so I’ve just been on hold,” she added, speaking to the channel from Boston’s airport.

“It felt like turbulence but they said it was electrical issues and there was a smell, but it was really like, it literally fell like you were falling out of the sky,” she told reporters.

“People were screaming near me, which I’ve never experienced that on a flight before.”

“The captain or someone noticed some smoke or some electric thing, so they came on the radio and said we had a technical problem and have to do an emergency landing in Boston,” said another passenger, Amen Abas.

Francis Nyikata told NBC10 he had just started dinner when the announcement came from the captain.

“When we landed, they came back on the phone again and explained they had procedures that they had to follow. They had like some sort of electrical smell in the cabin and that’s why they had to land,” he added.

A Lufthansa spokesperson told The Independent: “Lufthansa flight LH403, en route from New York (EWR) to Frankfurt (FRA), was diverted to Boston (BOS) due to a technical irregularity.

“As a precautionary measure and in accordance with procedures for a prioritized landing, the flight deck crew declared an air emergency.

“The aircraft has landed normally in Boston and all passengers have normally disembarked. A maintenance team is currently inspecting the aircraft. Passengers were rebooked on alternative flights.

“We regret any inconvenience caused, the safety of our passengers and crew is our top priority at all times.”

Police said the Boeing 747 aircraft had 326 people onboard and no injuries were reported.

According to data from ch-aviation.com, the aircraft was a nine-year old Boeng 747 which first flew on 26 July 2013. As of 30 April 2022, the aircraft had completed 37,289 flight hours (4.25 years) across 4,124 flight cycles.