Source: www.5newsonline.com

An American Airlines plane with 57 people on board landed safely at XNA after reports of smoke in the cockpit. Emergency crews were en route to XNA Thursday (Feb. 21) afternoon. Police and fire officials from multiple county agencies were on scene but found no evidence of smoke in the plane’s cockpit.

Flight AA 3768 was flying from Springfield, Missouri to Dallas, Texas. The plane had to take a sudden turn north to make an emergency landing at XNA. Gilbert Neil, the public safety director at XNA, says that the plane had barely reached flying altitude before a flight attendant noticed smoke coming from the plane’s cockpit, causing the plane to be diverted to XNA.

Airport officials said all 57 of the passengers are okay and will reboard the aircraft once maintenance fixes and deems the aircraft safe for flight. The situation was labeled an alert two, which Neil says usually means the plane needs immediate attention.

“If they have something like hydric failure or smoke in the cabin or cockpit that raises to the level where there could be serious issues and they want to get in here and on the ground as soon as they can,” Neil said.

Airport officials said after receiving the report they had first responders and crews waiting and ready for the plane to land just in case of an emergency. Benton County Emergency Management, as well as Rogers Fire, were among the agencies to help.