A New York City-bound airplane was forced to turnaround midflight and make an emergency landing due to a fire in the cockpit.

An Endeavor Air jet took off from Toronto, Canada, on the morning of February 3rd en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport with 74 people on board.

The pilot signaled “Mayday!” and reported an electrical fire to an air traffic controller.

“Toronto Departure, MAYDAY-MAYDAY-MAYDAY, this is Endeavor Flight4826, declaring an emergency. Just had a fire, a spark-up, an electrical fire, up in the cockpit. Looks like it’s out currently. Requesting return back to Toronto immediately,” the pilot said.

Listen to the audio:

The New York Post reports:

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The air traffic controller acknowledges the pilot’s request and instructs him to turn the Bombardier CRJ-900 around and start descending, as he continues to ask the unidentified flyer questions, such as how many people were on board.

The pilot replies there are 74 souls on board, with 9,000 pounds of fuel.

When the air traffic controller asks if there is any hazardous cargo on the plane, the pilot says there is not, “as far as we know.”

Moments later, the pilot can be heard telling another airport official that the fire appears to be out.

“We had a spark-up and flare-up on our windshield, it looks like it does appear to be out,” he said. “We should be able to exit the runway, but we’ll have fire trucks take us all the way to the gate.”

The pilot was instructed to fly into the airport, and a flight trajectory showed the plane turn around.

As the jet starts to descend, the air traffic controller can be heard telling the pilot details about the wind speed and adds, “The [fire truck] vehicles are on standby.

“They will follow you down the runway. Any other pertinent information?”

The pilot then reiterates that “We did have an electrical fire.

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Per FOX Business:

The tower cleared the pilot to land and patched the pilot to speak to the emergency vehicle on the ground.

“No medicals, brakes are on, engines are at idle and radar is off. The electrical fire was on the captain’s side windshield here. We did not suspect there was anything on the outside. It went out within approximately 30 seconds. Don’t suspect any aircraft damage, but if you guys wanna take a look and see,” he said, according to the audio shared by the “You can see ATC” account.

The ground vehicle said two firefighters would be on the ground to meet the plane upon landing.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada confirmed details to Fox News Digital, saying the incident was marked as a Class 5 investigation, meaning i did not warrant a full probe, but the incident was documented and could be used for statical reporting or training purposes.

“N320PQ, an Endeavor Air, Bombardier CL-600-2D24, operating as flight EDV4826, departed Toronto Lester B. Pearson International Airport (CYYZ), ON, on a flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport (KJFK), NY, and was climbing though 8,000 feet when the flight crew noticed a burnt electrical smell in the cockpit,” the Transportation Safety Board of Canada occurrence summary said.

“The flight crew were checking the cockpit when the captain’s side windshield electrical heater control unit began to emit sparks/flames. The flight crew donned oxygen masks, declared an emergency and requested a return to CYYZ,” the summary added. “The flight crew turned off the windshield heat and the sparks/flames stopped. The flight crew conducted a normal approach and landed without further incident. Maintenance found arcing on the left windshield power terminal block into the inner surface of the windshield and no damage to the wires. The windshield will be replaced.”

“Endeavor Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, is the world’s largest operator of CRJ-900 aircraft. Flying as Delta Connection, Endeavor operates 124 regional jets on 700 daily flights to over 100 cities in the United States and across North America,” Endeavor Air writes on its website.

“The quick and collected actions of the Endeavor Air flight deck crew demonstrate how safety is engrained in all that we do. We apologize to our customers for the delay in their travel plans on Feb. 3,” a Delta Air Lines spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

 

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