NTSB: ‘Chemical Smell’ Prompted Frontier A321 Emergency Landing

Flight crew said the odor increased in intensity, later describing it as 'burning rubber and/or petroleum products, such as plastics.'

Ryan Ewing

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 at 10:25 AM ET

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Edited By:

Travis Tingle

A Frontier A321 in Las Vegas [Credit: AirlineGeeks | William Derrickson]

Key Takeaways:

A Frontier Airbus A321 made an emergency landing in Las Vegas after the crew detected an escalating chemical odor, prompting an electrical emergency configuration.
Upon landing, witnesses reported tire explosions and a fire on the No. 2 engine, although the flight crew received no such indications, while NTSB data revealed a fault in an avionics bay cooling fan.
All 197 passengers and crew were uninjured, but the aircraft remains out of service following the incident.

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A Frontier Airbus A321 made an emergency landing on October 5 in Las Vegas after crewmembers detected an unidentified odor, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report Monday.

The odor was initially noticed by the cabin crew, which described it as a “chemical smell” that was unidentifiable, the agency stated. Flight attendants reported the smell—which was only detected in the forward portion of the cabin—to the pilots before they noticed a similar odor.