Hundreds of passengers aboard a Delta Air Lines flight survived nervy moments on Christmas Eve as the plane made an emergency landing on a small and isolated island in Alaska due to a "potential engine issue".
The flight, coming from Beijing, was bound for Seattle and had nearly 200 passengers on board when it made a sudden detour and landed at a US military base in Shemya, situated in the middle of an ocean in Alaska's Aleutians chain. No injuries were reported, USAToday reported.
Apologising for the inconvenience, Delta Air Lines spokesperson Drake Castaneda said in a statement: "Delta apologises for the delay to our customers after Flight 128 from Beijing to Seattle diverted to Shemya, Alaska, due to a potential engine issue."
The statement added that the US-based airline take safety of customers and crew members as a top priority.
Castaneda further said that an alternate aircraft was pressed into service to take the stranded passengers to Seattle, adding that Delta also sent technicians, customer service agents and crew members to operate the plane.
Narrating the incident, a passenger took to his Twitter handle, exclaiming that he is "still alive."
"We lost one engine, landed on a US air force base in Alaska in the middle of the ocean. Delta sent another plane from Seattle to pick us up, and after waiting for 12 hours we are finally on the flight back. What a great story to tell my grandchildren," the traveller tweeted.
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