Southwest Forced To Make Emergency Landing

Image: Southwest Airlines Boeing 737. (photo via Joshua Olson/iStock Editorial/Getty Images Plus)

by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 12:03 PM ET, Sun December 27, 2020

A Southwest Airlines flight was forced to return to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu on Christmas Day for an emergency landing, according to KHON2.

The captain of Flight 1278, bound for Oakland, Calif., reported hearing strange noises in the cockpit about 20 minutes after taking off.

The plane landed back at Inouye International Airport in Honolulu at 3:11 p.m. local time without incident or injuries.

Only 19 passengers and five crew were aboard.

A Southwest spokesperson told KHON2 the captain decided to turn the Boeing 737 aircraft around "in an abundance of caution," to allow mechanics to inspect the multi-layered windshield within the cockpit where the noises were coming from.

Even though no mechanical issues were discovered, Southwest swapped out equipment, and the flight took off on a new airplane, arriving in Oakland approximately three hours behind schedule.

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Rich Thomaselli

Associate Writer

Editor Associate Writer true 9281 14744 Rich Thomaselli has written for TravelPulse since 2014 and has been a professional journalist for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, the New York Times and New York Yankees publications. He is an 11-time writ