A Southwest Airlines flight between Charleston and Chicago Midway had to divert to Indianapolis following the smell of smoke onboard.
Incident: Smell of Smoke on Southwest Flight From Charleston to Chicago…
Southwest Airlines flight WN2426 is a routine scheduled flight between Charleston and Chicago Midway with the affected rotation which diverted to Indianapolis being operated by N563WN.
As per data from Planespotters.net, N563WN is a 18.2 year old Boeing 737-700 that first started out life with Aeromexico as XA-WAM in October 2005.
By 2009, the aircraft was handed over to Colombian carrier Aires as HK-4660 before being handed over to LAN Colombia in December 2011.
Southwest Airlines took delivery of the aircraft in May 2014, where it has been since.
Of the 737-700 variant, the airline has 397 of them, of which 379 are in active service, and the other 18 are currently parked.
Flight WN2426 departed Charleston at 1703 local time on November 6 and proceeded in a north-westerly direction towards Chicago Midway.
Upon reaching Indianapolis airspace, crew onboard noticed the smell of smoke onboard, which resulted in the diversion to the main airport in that airspace.
As per The Aviation Herald, the aircraft was grounded for the time being, with a Boeing 737 MAX 8 operating the second leg back to Chicago, with a delay of around 4.5 hours for the passengers.
On November 7, N563WN continued on to Chicago Midway empty, where it then resumed it’s commercial operation following a quick fix by technicians.
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