Flight makes emergency landing at Newark Liberty Airport, passengers evacuated

A flight that reported a possible fire on board made an emergency landing Saturday morning at Newark Liberty International Airport, temporarily bringing all air traffic at the airport to a halt.

News 12 Staff

Mar 9, 2019, 2:36 PM

Updated 2,106 days ago

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Flight makes emergency landing at Newark Liberty Airport, passengers evacuated
A flight that reported a possible fire on board made an emergency landing Saturday morning at Newark Liberty International Airport, temporarily bringing all air traffic at the airport to a halt.
According to the FAA, an Air Transat flight from Montreal to Florida reported a possible fire in its cargo hold. The Boeing 737 flight was diverted to Newark and landed on Runway 4, where airport firefighters responded.
There were 197 people aboard the plane, including crew members.
Passengers were evacuated on the runway using the plane's emergency slides. Newark Airport says there were two minor injuries, but they were "unrelated to any smoke condition."
In a tweet, the airport deemed the situation an "airport emergency." All runways were closed and other flights were grounded for about an hour as crews responded to the scene.
The airport announced shortly before 10 a.m. that flights had resumed. Travelers were urged to check with their airline carriers for flight status updates.
Some 350 flights were delayed through the day.
Air Transat said the situation was spurred by "reports of smoke in the cargo hold," but the cause is unclear at this time.
The incident remains under investigation.
Air Transat tweeted this afternoon that another aircraft and a new crew headed to Newark to pick up the flight to Florida.