Airplane makes emergency landing at RDU successfully

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Friday, January 4, 2019
Airplane makes emergency landing at RDU successfully
An airplane flying from Birmingham to Washington D.C. made an emergency landing in Raleigh on Friday morning.

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- An airplane flying from Birmingham, Alabama, to Washington D.C. made an emergency landing in Raleigh on Friday morning.

A mechanical issue forced American Eagle flight 5562 to make an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport at 8:37 a.m. American Airlines later learned that a faulty sensor tripped the perceived mechanical failure.

The CRJ-200 plane departed from Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International at 6:21 a.m. (Central Standard Time) on its way to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Seven passengers and a crew of three people were on the aircraft. None of them were injured. The passengers are being booked on different flights in order to reach their destinations, according to American Airlines.

The airplane was forced to land due to an Alert 1. According to the Airport Technical Assistance Program, an Alert 1 designation is assigned when "an aircraft that is known or suspected to have an operational defect" needs to land.