NOT A GREAT START FOR THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS. WE WERE LUCKY THAT IT DID NOT TURN OUT TO BE A MORE SERIOUS EVENT. WITH ALL THE TRAVEL WE DO, WE HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE.
My Wife and I were on American Airlines flight #226 (Business Class) on the 11:30PM flight. At takeoff, the smoke alarm went off for several minutes due to smoke coming in from the back of the plane. The plane immediately turned around and made an emergency landing. We were back on the ground after about 10 to 15 minutes on the plane. The passengers remained on the plane for the next several hours where they finally decided to deplane the passengers. It was not a pleasant experience on the ground as you can imagine the confusion by American airline staff with a nearly full plane and dealing with very unhappy customers. My wife and I finally got handled and were sent to the Hilton Garden Inn at around 4:00am on 21 December 2016. We were very disgruntled with the way were handled and eventually got confirmed on an American Airline Flight First Class this evening at 10:00PM. The videos below were taken with my I-Phone upon landing back in Santiago.
