A Frontier Airlines plane was met by a hazmat team testing for possible poisonous gas after crew members reported falling sick from a “strange odor” Thursday — the same day another of its flights had a bomb threat.
Flight 990 was heading to San Antonio from Denver when the crew members in the back of the plane noticed a fume-like odor and alerted the captain, NEWS4 reported.
When the plane landed about 1:40 p.m. Thursday, four flight attendants informed San Antonio firefighters that they felt nauseous, according to the outlet.
Emergency crews donned hazmat suits and used equipment to test for poisonous gas, My San Antonio reported.
“Originally, we were called for a strange odor on a plane and people feeling bad so we sent a whole lot of people — hazmat, rescue, airport rescue, all these things out there — but once the plane landed, we realized there was no odor,” said fire department rep Joe Arrington.
“None of the passengers were feeling sick. It was isolated to four crew members who were feeling ill,” he said.
“As a precaution, we responded because it came in to us as a foul odor on a plane, so that ramps up our response. But once we got everyone down, there were no negative readings of anything on the plane,” Arrington added.
The crew members were evaluated by emergency medical personnel as a precaution. No passengers were affected, officials said.
“None required further evaluation or treatment. All passengers who were on board the flight deplaned. Our maintenance team is currently evaluating the aircraft to determine the cause,” a Frontier spokesperson told the outlet.
In the second incident, involving Flight 1571 from Baltimore to Atlanta, a passenger reported receiving an anonymous AirDrop message claiming there was an explosive device onboard, an airline rep told 11 Alive.
“Per standard protocol, the flight crew notified appropriate authorities and has safely landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Emergency personnel are on scene,” the airlines told the outlet in a statement.
The Airbus A320 landed safely about 9:30 p.m. at a remote section of the airport, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.
An FBI agent boarded the plane and informed the passengers that an Atlanta police K-9 unit would be arriving shortly. Each passenger was sniffed by the dogs before everyone was bused to the terminal.
Authorities found no physical evidence of an explosive device on the aircraft.
“There was no known danger found to the aircraft or passengers. An investigation to determine the person or group responsible for making the threat is ongoing,” the FBI told Atlanta News First in a statement.
Several passengers expressed their anger with whoever sent the threatening message.
“I was just glad to get off and be safe. I hope they find the person who sent the message though, because criminally that was wrong, and you just scared an entire plane of people and passengers and their families,” Latoya Lowe told Fox 5.