2015.07.03
JTA flight makes emergency descent
An alarm indicating a drop in the air pressure in the cabin went off on a Japan Transocean Air flight 002 from Naha to Kansai International Airport in the morning of Jun. 30th. prompting the captain to deploy the oxygen masks in the cabin and to make an emergency descend.
The Boeing 737-400 aircraft was flying at an altitude of 11,000 meters when the alarm went off, and descended to 3,000 meters. It continued to fly at that altitude the rest of the trip to Kansai until it landed there safely about an hour later. There were 37 passengers on the flight, and no one was injured in the incident.
According to JTA officials, the warning light indicating hat there was a problem in the system that takes air in from the engines went off while the aircraft was flying over the ocean between Miyazaki and Kochi. Then in a short while, the alarm of decline of the atmospheric pressure set off. The atmospheric pressure in the cabin was stabilized in about ten minutes after the plane descended to 3,000 meters.
The Transport Ministry Safety Board dispatched a team to investigate the incident that ministry officials described as serious.