Flight 1313 makes emergency landing in Lexington

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - An Allegiant Air plane made an emergency landing at Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport Thursday.

The online flight record shows Flight 1313 departed Cincinnati for Fort Lauderdale just before 11:30 a.m.

The record shows 25 minutes into the flight, near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, the plane turned around to head back to Cincinnati but quickly diverted to Blue Grass.

According to Allegiant officials, the reason for the diversion was an odor in the forward cabin. They say the odor dissipated during the flight but, out of an abundance of caution, the pilot decided to land at Blue Grass Airport to have the plane inspected.

Airline officials say an emergency was declared, which is a standard procedure and ensures that a flight receives priority handling.

“We were all scared, to be honest with you,” said passenger Beverly Shaw. “There were people praying, they were people crying. I mean everybody. I would say, it was a full flight, about 80% of that flight was in fear.”

The plane landed safely in Lexington at 12:35.

Allegiant says 144 passengers and six crew members were on board the plane. We’re told one passenger and two flight attendants said they weren’t feeling well, so paramedics checked them out, but no injuries were reported.

Allegiant said passengers were given vouchers for food and for future travel. Those people we talked to said, now that they know everything is okay, they still plan on flying Allegiant in the future.

A replacement aircraft was brought in to continue the flight to Fort Lauderdale.

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