JetBlue Flight 543 departed Newark for West Palm Beach at around 5.45pm on Wednesday, February 18, officials confirmed. Minutes after take-off, pilots observed an engine had failed and alerted the New Jersey airport of its return for an emergency landing. 

Ensure our latest news headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings.

A mere 17 minutes later, wheels touched down on the tarmac. The drama appeared to be all but over until flight crew spotted the smoke billowing from the cockpit.

Passengers were ordered to evacuate immediately by Jet Blue’s quick-thinking flight attendant via the aircraft’s inflatable emergency slides. This prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration to issue an immediate ground stop at the airport, with all flights in and out halted as a result. 

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed normal operations have now resumed at the airport as of 7pm local time.

While flights may have resumed, that does not mean that the flight schedule has returned to normal. The knock-on effect has been significant for travellers despite the briefness of the airport closure.

Inbound flights are currently delayed by an average of two hours and three minutes, as per time of writing. Flights departing Newark are seeing average delays of an hour and a half.

Delays are expected to persist as the airport works through the backlog. While most flights are currently listed as “delayed” rather than cancelled, travellers should expect to see some flights dumped from the schedule as crews reach their duty limits due to the wait times. 

As for the JetBlue flight that triggered all of the airport chaos, no injures were reported after its terrifying 17 minutes in the sky.