A strange odor forced a Southwest Airlines flight to return to the gate at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday.
The odor made passengers feel ill and sent a worker in the cargo hold to a local hospital. The flight, on a Boeing 737, was headed from Fort Lauderdale to Havana, Cuba.
The fire department responded to the airport on Friday afternoon after reports of the odor emerged. All passengers were removed and a HAZMAT team - conducting atmospheric pressure tests - also had the luggage from the cargo hold emptied as well.
Officials still don't know what caused the odor.
But unfortunately, it's not the first time an odor has been detected on a flight in what seems to be an unusually high rate affecting several different airlines this year.
Incidents have happened in:
- February, on an Alaska Airlines flight.
- March, on United Airlines.
- April, on Spirit Airlines.
- May, three times, on Alaska Airlines and separate incidents on Spirit. Those happened just a week apart.
- July, on a JetBlue flight.
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