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Hawaiian Air flight makes emergency landing; 2 injured

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Hawaiian Air flight 24 returned to Maui airport Friday morning soon after departing due to an odor of fumes in the cabin. (Photo by Lori Prieto Courtesy Maui Now)
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Passengers and crew disembarked Hawaiian flight 24 late Friday morning after an odor of fumes prompted the flight crew to return to Maui airport for an emergency landing. (Courtesy Jim Krochka)
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Passengers and crew disembarked Hawaiian flight 24 late Friday morning after an odor of fumes prompted the flight crew to return to Maui airport for an emergency landing. (Courtesy Jim Krochka)
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Hawaiian Air flight 24 returned to Maui airport Friday morning soon after departing due to an odor of fumes in the cabin. (Photo by Wendy Osher)

A Hawaiian Airlines flight to Oakland returned to Maui and made an emergency landing late this morning, with all passengers evacuated via emergency slides.

No serious injuries were reported but two people were "taken to the local hospital with minor injuries," an airline spokeswoman said.

Hawaiian flight 24 left Maui at 11:18 a.m. but returned to the Kahului airport soon after departure due to an odor of fumes in the cabin, according to a statement from the airline.

The airline said the flight crew declared an emergency and landed at 11:50 a.m. 

The Boeing 767-300 plane carried 224 passengers and 10 crew.

Passenger Jim Krochka, who said he’s flown hundreds of times, knew something wasn’t right shortly after takeoff.

“The sound of the motor kept running to bring the landing gear up,” he said. “I said, ‘Wait a minute that’s not right.’”

“We took off and just a few minutes into the flight the plane didn’t seem to be rising quickly enough, and veered a little to the right and a little to the left,” said the 68-year-old Walnut Creek, Calif., resident, who was returning home with his daughter Jaymee, 23, from a vacation on Molokai.

“We got above the clouds, and went down below the clouds,” he said. “It rose again and the pilot came on.”

The pilot informed passengers the plane would have to return to Kahului.

“He was so nervous, and he was stuttering,” he said. “He was understandably nervous.”

Krochka commended the pilot, saying, “He did a great job and got us back safely on the ground.”

He described the odor as an electrical burning smell.

“The smell started getting stronger and stronger,” he said. “That’s when people started getting more and more nervous and the pilot said to evacuate."

Krochka said it took about 20 minutes for the plane to land, going over water and possibly some islands, but the plane “didn’t act normally.” He said the evacuation went smoothly.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the incident 

Tim Sakahara, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the airport remains open but some flights were diverted to Honolulu because flight 24 remained on the runway after the emergency landing.

Hawaiian Airlines said two of its flights from the mainland – flight 29 from Seattle to Maui scheduled to arrive at 1:15 p.m., and Flight 41 from San Francisco to Maui scheduled to arrive at 12:50 p.m. — were diverted to Honolulu Airport. Flight 29 arrived in HNL at 1:15 p.m. and Flight 41 arrived in HNL at 1:03 p.m., officials said. The airline said those flights were set to refuel and go to Maui. 

Sakahara said officials are still investigating the cause of the fumes in the cabin.

Hawaiian Airlines officials said all flight 24 passengers are being offered a flight to Oakland on a new aircraft, flight 1024 which is scheduled to depart at 10:15 p.m. and arrive at 5:20 a.m.

The airline has also offered overnight accommodations to customers who prefer to remain on Maui and leave Saturday, officials said. A company statement also said, "Hawaiian will be refunding airfare for all affected passengers."

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