Passengers recount experience of plane sliding off taxiway at Pittsburgh airport

A Lower Burrell native was among the 77 people on board a Boeing 717 that slid off a taxiway before takeoff Wednesday evening at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Kristen Singleton, 46, had a window seat on Delta Air Lines Flight 2231. Sitting in the midsection of the plane, she was looking outside as the plane taxied to prepare for takeoff.

“All of a sudden I was looking at a ditch,” she said. “We were coming to the end of the runway to make a turn to take off the other way, and we just never stopped going at the end of the runway.”

It wasn’t until Singleton and other passengers used stairs to get off the plane that they realized how bad the situation could have been, she said.

No one was hurt, but the plane had slid partway into a ravine. The crew talked the passengers through the situation as they developed a plan to get the passengers safely off the plane, Singleton said.

People who were sitting in front got off first to keep the weight toward the back of the plane, which remained on the taxiway.

Passengers were worried, but remained calm throughout, Singleton said.

“The crew was great. The ground crew was great,” she said. “It just kind of caught everyone off guard.”

As she rode in a bus back to the terminal, she asked a firefighter if he’d be worried about getting on another plane Wednesday night and he reassured her, Singleton said.

“You were the only plane this happened to,” she said he told her.

Singleton lives in Butler, where she’s a teacher at Butler Catholic School. She was flying to Atlanta and then to Tampa, Fla., to visit her parents.

She boarded another flight and arrived at 2:45 a.m. in Atlanta, slept in the airport before arriving later Thursday in Tampa, where it was 80 degrees, she said.

She’ll use the experience in the classroom, she said.

“This is definitely something that will be talked about for many years to come,” Singleton said.

Another of the passengers, Samantha Robinson, 28, said she elected to stay overnight in Pittsburgh before taking another flight to Atlanta on Thursday night.

Robinson, an Elizabeth native, lives in Atlanta but plans to return to the Pittsburgh area later this year.

She also had a window seat and was sitting in the rear of the plane when it happened, she said.

Initially, she thought it was like “any other flight” — the pilot had warned passengers it had started to snow.

“Once the engine turned off, I thought it was kind of weird,” Robinson said. “That was kind of when I got a little more concerned.”

From the window, it appeared as if the plane had slid a few more feet it would have slid into a ravine.

“That was a little scary,” she said. “I wasn’t really nervous until I got off the plane.”

Delta paid for a hotel and she was relaxing Thursday before her flight to Atlanta, she said.

Airport crews continue to work with Delta to remove the plane from the airfield, Allegheny County Airport Authority Spokesman Bob Kerlik said.

They are using heavy equipment to remove the plane and are waiting for specialized equipment to arrive later Thursday.

The cause of the incident is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, Kerlik said.

Two runways remain open at the airport and there is no impact to airport operations, he said.

Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant said the airline is reviewing what happened in coordination with the Allegheny County Airport Authority and others.

The airline is working to get baggage to customers on the flight.

“Many customers chose to continue their travel late Wednesday evening on an alternate aircraft Delta provided, while others departed this morning on a regularly scheduled flight,” Durrant said. “We have been in contact with all customers and apologize for the inconvenience.”