Dallas real estate executive Chuck Dannis has spent a lot of hours on American Airlines flights. But he’s never had such a scare on one as he did this afternoon.
Returning to Dallas from Denver aboard AA Flight 880, Dannis said he was sitting in first-class when he and the other passengers noticed an electrical “burning smell” shortly after takeoff. The plane was diverted quickly to the first available airport—in Pueblo, Colo.—where it made an emergency landing.
“They explained where all the emergency exits were, and told us to assume the crash position,” Dannis said by phone from the airport in Pueblo, where buses were scheduled to pick up the 100-plus passengers and shuttle them to Colorado Springs to board another plane for Dallas.
Then he added, jokingly, “It was enough to make you a believer.”
