A New York City-bound flight was forced to make an emergency midair U-turn minutes after takeoff when the flight crew noticed a “burnt electrical smell” and spotted fire in the cockpit.
The Endeavor Air jet took off from Toronto, Canada, around 6:47 a.m. Feb. 3 with 74 people on board and was headed to JFK Airport in Queens when the terrifying incident occurred.
“Hey Toronto departure! Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” the pilot frantically told an air traffic controller as he noticed sparks flying from the jet’s windshield while climbing to peak altitude, according to audio recently shared to YouTube.
“This is Endeavor 4826, declaring an emergency. Just had a fire, a spark-up, an electrical fire, up in the cockpit. Looks like it’s out currently,” the pilot then says more calmly. “Requesting return back to Toronto immediately.”
The air traffic controller acknowledges the pilot’s request and instructs him to turn the Bombardier CRJ-900 around and start descending, as he continues to ask the unidentified flyer questions, such as how many people were on board.
The pilot replies there are 74 souls on board, with 9,000 pounds of fuel.
When the air traffic controller asks if there is any hazardous cargo on the plane, the pilot says there is not, “as far as we know.”
Moments later, the pilot can be heard telling another airport official that the fire appears to be out.
“We had a spark-up and flare-up on our windshield, it looks like it does appear to be out,” he said. “We should be able to exit the runway, but we’ll have fire trucks take us all the way to the gate.”
The pilot was instructed to fly into the airport, and a flight trajectory showed the plane turn around.
As the jet starts to descend, the air traffic controller can be heard telling the pilot details about the wind speed and adds, “The [fire truck] vehicles are on standby.
“They will follow you down the runway. Any other pertinent information?”
The pilot then reiterates that “We did have an electrical fire.
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