17 Kids Injured After Delta Plane Dumps Fuel On Park Avenue Elementary School Playground

Delta Airlines is on the headlines again after its Boeing 777-200 plane released fuel that landed on school grounds in Los Angeles. The incident injured more than a dozen children and adults.

“Shortly after takeoff, Flight 89 from LAX to Shanghai experienced an engine issue requiring the aircraft to return to LAX,” The Los Angeles Times quoted Adrian Gee, Delta spokesperson, as saying. “The aircraft landed safely after an emergency fuel release to reduce landing weight.”

The spokesperson did not mention anything about the kind of issue that the Delta plane had encountered while flying. It was said that 149 people were aboard and none of them were hurt in the incident.

It passed over the schools at around 11:53 a.m. and it was only flying at 2,300 feet above the ground when it dumped some engine fuel. Delta airlines assured everyone that it remained in touch with the local county fire department for concerns regarding the injured school kids and adults.

The L.A. County Fire Department tweeted that they counted at least 17 children and nine adults who were hurt and they were mostly in the school playground at the time of the emergency. Over 70 firefighters and paramedics have responded and treated the affected people on the site at the Park Avenue Elementary School. It was reported that none was brought to the hospital as the injuries were minor skin irritations only.

In the latest update from the LACofDPIO, the total number of the affected individuals after full assessment are 20 children and 11 adults from Park Avenue, 6 patients from Tweedy, 6 from San Gabriel and 1 from Graham elementary schools. Most of the injured belong to two classes from Park Avenue school, who were out in the playground when the fuel from the Delta plane rained down on them.

Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration is currently investigating to determine why the fuel was dumped in a populated area. the incident. It added that they have fuel-dumping procedures and they generally require aircrafts to do it away from populous areas and it should be at “higher altitudes so the fuel atomizes and disperses before it reaches the ground.”