July 24, 2018
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
The Philadelphia International Airport.
A Los Angeles-bound flight at Philadelphia International Airport was delayed on Tuesday after fuel was reportedly pouring out of the American Airlines' plane before takeoff.
American Airlines confirmed to PhillyVoice the incident occurred, and called it a "minor fuel spill."
"A mechanical issue was encountered during the fueling process, which resulted in a minor fuel spill at the gate," the airline said in a statement.
The airline didn't release any further details about why the spill occurred as of 9:15 p.m., but said it may have been an issue with the fueling truck, and not the aircraft.
Multiple passengers documented the ordeal on Twitter, asking American for some sort of update on their flight that was delayed about four hours.
I’ve been through a lot of flight delay situations, but fuel pouring out of the side of a wing is a new one. @AmericanAir pic.twitter.com/zdWHVAzlYC
— Rebecca Morgan (@itsmebeccam) July 24, 2018
@AmericanAir At @PHLAirport flight#481. Is that FUEL coming out. Please provide us an update. pic.twitter.com/wqyParHtOv
— AG (@aegarbayo) July 24, 2018
@AmericanAir what the hell man ! I need to get to LA pic.twitter.com/0WbfPsKZ1w
— Mo City King (@Kingkeraun) July 24, 2018
Eventually, it appears that emergency responders from Philadelphia International were alerted to the situation and attempted to clean up the spill. And they were using ... paper towels?
Emergency responders are now on the scene. @AmericanAir maybe you should stop acting like we’re getting on this plane? 😅 pic.twitter.com/SjEU0wDI5k
— Rebecca Morgan (@itsmebeccam) July 24, 2018
Update: they’re now using paper towels to clean up the fuel spill 😂 Everyone is watching in awe and laughing. No one has ever seen anything like it. They still say we’re leaving at 1:30 out of this gate. pic.twitter.com/UykXCXlCZG
— Rebecca Morgan (@itsmebeccam) July 24, 2018
Meanwhile, everyone at the gate was just watching this all go down.
The fuel cap is just ¿ dangling ?
— Rebecca Morgan (@itsmebeccam) July 24, 2018
Everyone is gathered around the window like it’s a show. pic.twitter.com/fbh8L6Ta6r
According to the airline's website, and Twitter reports, the flight should have left at 1 p.m.
Twitter passenger Rebecca Morgan said passengers were moved to another gate in the airport to board a new plane, which was intended for takeoff around 2:30 p.m. Then, they had to get off that plane and eventually re-boarded another. Whew.
Finally taking off at 5:45 PM. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk on poor airline management! This might be on the news tonight, who knows. Kinda hope it is because...wowzas it has been a ride.
— Rebecca Morgan (@itsmebeccam) July 24, 2018
Looks like that flight didn't leave until 5:30 p.m. It landed around 9 p.m. on Tuesday.
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