Delta flight experiences a loss in cabin pressure as flight diverts to Tampa

A Delta airlines flight from Atlanta airport to Fort Lauderdale experienced a loss in cabin pressure and was forced to divert to Tampa international.

Delta flight 2353 was cruising at 39,000 ft on its way to Fort Lauderdale from Atlanta when a loss in cabin pressure forced the oxygen masks to drop and the flight crew to perform a controlled emergency descent to 10,000 ft. The aircraft was flying along the gulf coast of Northern Florida when the incident happened and the flight crew decided to divert to Tampa international. The aircraft, a Boeing 767-300ER (N1608) landed in Tampa safely with no reported injuries.

Some passengers spoke about the incident after the flight landed. “Air masks, the oxygen masks dropped from the top of the plane. Chaos sort of ensued amongst the passengers”.  Another said “Life is fragile like. There was a scary 60 to 90 seconds where we really didn’t know what was going on. At 15,000 feet in the air, it’s a scary moment for sure,”

After the incident Delta offered a bus service to passengers to get them onward to Fort Lauderdale. Some passengers opted to book flights on other airlines to get them onward to Fort Lauderdale.

Delta had this to say about the flight that was diverted “out of an abundance of caution and landed without incident following a cabin pressurization irregularity en route.”.

The plane has since been checked out by maintenance with no word on what was the exact cause of the cabin pressure irregularity. A replacement aircraft was used to finish out flight 2353 on its last leg back to Atlanta from Fort Lauderdale.

We would like to add that this situation is not uncommon, it happens a few times a month to airlines around the world. As we can imagine, many passengers were frightened by the situation but by no means is there anything to worry about in this specific situation. The pilots reacted to the situation in a swift and accurate manner to bring the flight to a safe ending.