United Flight Diverted Following Smoke From Cockpit

A United Airlines flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles had to make an emergency landing after there were reports of smoke coming from the cockpit.

United Airlines Flight UA99 left Tullamarine Airport on Monday at 1 p.m. local time and landed at La Tontouta International Airport at Noumea in New Caledonia at 4 p.m.

The Nouvelles-Caledoniennes website reported that oxygen masks automatically dropped down in the cabin which had 256 passengers onboard. All passengers evacuated the plane safely and no injuries were reported. They’ll be spending the night in Noumea.

Didn’t expect to end our trip in New Caledonia but want to commend the Captain and his crew of UA99 for a calm and professional emergency diversion @united - pic.twitter.com/Fa8kSRqa0P

— Nathan Lanier (@treehousenate) March 25, 2019

"The passengers are disembarking calmly," said an official from the local Chamber of Commerce which runs the airport. "It seems that there was some smoke coming out of the cockpit."

Passenger Juan Mundel told DailyMail.com: "There was smoke and we landed in about 30 minutes. It was a smooth landing."

He added, "People at New Caledonia were awesome, there were four to five fire cars ready and ambulances."

It’s still unclear what caused the reported smoke in the cabin and United Airlines has yet to release a statement.