Cabin pressure issue leads to PBG landing
Mar. 7—PLATTSBURGH — A Contour Airlines aircraft experienced a "cabin pressurization issue" Wednesday morning that forced it to divert from its route and land at Plattsburgh International Airport.
Airport Director Chris Kreig said the plane was traveling enroute to Philadelphia from Ogdensburg International Airport when it experienced the issue and notified air traffic control. He said the Contour crew elected to land in Plattsburgh rather than turn around.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
Kreig said the airport was notified about the situation around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday and swiftly initiated the appropriate response from the Plattsburgh International Airport Fire Department and South Plattsburgh, City of Plattsburgh, Peru, and District 3 Fire Departments, as well as EMTs of CVPH, Clinton County Fire and EMS Coordinators, Airport Security and the Clinton County Sheriff's Department.
"In the event something didn't go right or something went wrong, we wanted to make sure that we had the appropriate equipment and personnel and appropriate resources positioned to respond," Kreig said.
"Our fire department was in contact with the aircraft; they were in contact with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) over in Burlington, and then the aircraft came in, landed and fortunately, it was an uneventful event ... from our standpoint, it played out the way we hope situations like that do."
Situations like this happen infrequently, Kreig said.
TRAINED FOR RESPONSE
But if and when they do, everyone is prepared, he said.
"We train on a recurring basis. Every three years we hold a full-scale exercise to exercise our emergency plan, so everybody's familiar with it, and everybody understands their roles and responsibilities," he said.
"Everybody did what they were supposed to do on our end. We train for these types of incidents, we hope to never have to respond, but when we do, we train to make sure what we're doing is the right thing to do ... we've got some highly qualified folks in the fire department at the airport, and in the other fire departments that support us."
Kreig said he did not have any specifics regarding the status of the plane and whether or not the issue was fixed.
The Press-Republican reached out to a Contour Airlines media relations representative for further clarification but they did not respond by press time.
'ALERT 2' RESPONSE
Kreig confirmed it was an Alert 2 level response.
"We have different alert levels in our emergency plan and that's just basically that the pilots identified an in-flight situation that required the airport fire department and response resources and other response agencies to position in the event that ... something happened."
"I'm trying to avoid using the words crash and those types of words, but they're there as a precaution to make sure that if something did go wrong, they were right there to respond immediately."
Clinton County Emergency Services Director Eric Day said certain police, fire and emergency services agencies automatically respond to Alert 2 situations.
He said all agencies were sent home after the plane landed safely.
Kreig has previously called the airport fire department his insurance policy. This was made evident by the incident Wednesday.
"This is one of those instances where exactly that: you don't want to use them but when you need them, they're there. and in this case, they were there," he said.
"That's all I can ask and that's all the county can ask. They do a really good job and we have a good group of people at the fire department."
Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com
Twitter: CarlySNewton
