A JetBlue flight was diverted on Wednesday after an evacuation slide activated 10 minutes into a flight from Fort Myers, Fla., to Boston, Mass.
No injuries were reported among the 74 passengers aboard JetBlue Flight 1266, which was subsequently diverted to Orlando International Airport where it landed at 3:41 p.m., according to airport spokesman Rod Johnson.
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CBS Boston WBZ reported that one JetBlue flight attendant was knocked down and temporarily trapped by the evacuation slide as it was deployed. She was subsequently sent to a local hospital with an injury to her hand.
JetBlue spokesman Anders Lindstrom explained that the slide partially deployed toward the aircraft's galley. At no point however did a door open, and nothing was hanging off the side of
the plane, the Associated Press reported.
"It just seemed all of a sudden there was a big noise and all of a sudden it blew up like," flight passenger Catherine Leonard told CBS Boston. "It was a little scary at first."
"We were startled, [but] the plane didn't jerk or jolt or anything like that," passenger Helen Murdock added, admitting that "for a few minutes" she did worry for her safety.
The plane is no longer in service and a thorough investigation has been launched to understand what caused the evacuation slide to open midflight, Lindstrom said, adding that it's too early to tell what went wrong.
The National Transportation and Safety Board is also looking into what caused the incident,
CNN reported.
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Passengers on JetBlue Flight 1266 were put on another aircraft that arrived at 10 p.m. in Boston. All flight passengers were given a JetBlue voucher for a free flight in the future, CBS News noted.
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