Mystery odor sends American Airlines plane full of cheerleaders back to Charlotte

A mysterious odor forced an American Airlines plane carrying University of Pittsburgh cheerleaders to return to Charlotte’s airport Friday morning, the Tribune-Review of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, reported.

When some passengers stood to ask flight attendants about the odor, one of them replied, “everything is under control,” passenger Ken Strauss told the Tribune-Review.

Flight 5118 was headed to Greensboro but returned to Charlotte Douglas International Airport at about 8:30 a.m., “shortly after take-off,” Charlotte Observer news partner WBTV reported. The cheerleaders and fans of the university’s football team were headed to Greensboro because the team is scheduled to play Wake Forest on Saturday.

In a statement, the airline said only that “the flight operated by PSA Airlines made that emergency landing due to an odor in the cabin,” WSOC-TV reported.

“Only one person was treated by medical personnel and then released,” WSOC-TV reported. The flight had 59 passengers, according to the station.

Strauss, a die-hard University of Pittsburgh fan, told the Tribune-Review and also tweeted that the odor smelled like fire, but the newspaper said officials confirmed no fire was involved.

Airline officials have yet to say what caused the odor, WBTV reported.

The passengers caught another flight “and arrived at 11:43 a.m., nearly three hours later than originally scheduled,” according to the Tribune-Review.

The University of Pittsburgh’s cheerleading squad tweeted a photo at 7:27 p.m. Friday showing them all smiling as they were about to head to dinner.

On Thursday morning, an American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Orlando safely returned to Charlotte’s airport just after takeoff because of a mechanical issue, the Observer reported in an article later Thursday.