A federal investigation into “a flight control issue” is underway after at least 15 people, including children, were taken to the hospital following a sudden drop in altitude on a JetBlue flight that forced an emergency landing in Tampa, officials said.
Flight 1230 was heading Thursday from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, when it “experienced a drop in altitude,” JetBlue said in a statement, causing pilots to call for medical help. The plane diverted to Tampa International Airport around 2 p.m. ET, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
The plane dropped about 100 feet in about seven seconds around 1:48 p.m. before making a more normal descent into Tampa, data from FlightRadar24 shows. Medical personnel were there to meet the plane on arrival, an airport spokesperson said.
The FAA is investigating a “flight control issue” on the Airbus A320, it said, echoing a pilot’s message to air traffic controllers around the time of the brief descent. The National Transportation Safety Board is aware of the incident but has not started an investigation, the agency told CNN.
The flight disruption comes in a volatile year for air travel, with a major midair collision, runway incursions and serious turbulence already in play before the monthlong government shutdown raised staffing issues for air traffic controllers as the holiday travel season looms.
Just before Thursday’s emergency, a strong cold front passed through Florida, leaving gusty winds and light rain showers. It was not immediately clear if weather was a factor in the flight’s altitude drop.
A ‘flight control issue’
While it’s unclear why the plane dropped in altitude, pilots told air traffic control the plane had experienced “a flight control issue,” audio from LiveATC.net indicates.
Flight control failure is not without precedent for the Airbus A320, which has what’s called fly-by-wire controls: Control inputs from the pilot run through computers to trigger movements of the plane’s control surfaces.
While the system is quite redundant, a failure about 30 years ago of the computer controlling an Airbus A320’s elevator – which controls its pitch: the up and down movement of the nose and tail – caused a Northwest Airlines plane to dive a hundred feet without any command from the pilots. The NTSB investigated that incident.
As air traffic controllers on Thursday guided the JetBlue flight into Tampa, pilots reported injuries, including a possible “laceration in the head,” the audio indicates.
Some 15 to 20 people aboard the plane were evaluated and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Tampa Fire Rescue spokesperson Vivian Shedd said.
Two children and 12 adults were taken to Tampa’s St. Joseph’s Hospital with minor injuries, and all have been discharged, a hospital spokesperson said. No further details about injuries were available.
“Our team has taken the aircraft out of service for inspection, and we will conduct a full investigation to determine the cause,” JetBlue said in its statement. “The safety of our customers and crewmembers is always our first priority, and we will work to support those involved.”
CNN’s Martin Goillandeau contributed to this reporting.
Correction: Prior versions of this story misnamed an agency that was part of the emergency response. It was Tampa Fire Rescue.