An American Eagle flight from Colorodo to Chicago was forced to make an early landing in Peoria because of a report of smoke in the cockpit.
One of the 53 passengers on board suffered an ankle injury during an emergency evacuationm according to American Airlines.Passenger Chris Pyle posted a video to YouTube of the evacuation with this message.
"My wife and I were on American Airlines Flight 3773 returning from Colorado to O'Hare in Chicago on July 18. As we got close to Chicago, we hit bad weather and they diverted the plane to Peoria. As we began our descent, we noticed a burning rubber smell. Then, smoke started pouring out of the ceiling. There was quite a bit of smoke. It affected our ability to breathe with ease. The pilot then turned the lights on in the plane which made it more difficult to see the smoke.
"No one told us anything, which I can understand. Get us on the ground first. Once we hit the ground, the pilot stopped the plane pretty quickly and then we were told that we would be evacuating the plane as soon as the plane stopped. They asked those sitting in the exit rows to be prepared to open the door. My wife and I were sitting behing an exit row and got out fairly quickly. We exited onto the wing and had to jump off. That was surprising as the wing is high off the ground. One lady broke her ankle. I jumped and then turned around to catch my wife and another lady who was with us. The fire department never found fire. I think they suspect it was an electrical problem."
The flight made its emergency landing early this morning. It was destined for O'Hare airport.
