An Alaska Airlines flight from Lihue to Seattle had to divert due to an 'unidentifiable odor', and 4 flight attendants were hospitalized due to the incident. The flight diverted to Honolulu, where the flight attendants were taken to the hospital.
 

Flight Details

Alaska Airlines Flight 810 was scheduled to fly from Lihue Airport (LIH) to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). The flight was operated with a Boeing 737-800 registered as N533AS. On Thursday, September 12th, the flight departed Lihue at 11:14 PM local time, approximately an hour and a half behind its original departure time of 9:47 PM. There were 119 passengers and 6 crew members on board.

25 minutes after taking off, the flight reached its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. Around this time, flight attendants started reporting sickness due to an unknown odor in the cabin. At 11:49 PM, the Boeing 737 started returning to the Hawaiian Islands, heading towards Honolulu International Airport (HNL).

The flight landed in Honolulu at 12:36 AM, 1 hour and 22 minutes after taking off. Alaska Airlines stated that they were able to accommodate the 119 passengers that were on board. Fortunately, none of the passengers or both pilots reported ill. Meanwhile, the Boeing 737 was flown to Seattle as Flight AS9807 with no passengers on board for further inspection.

The aircraft seems to have already been inspected successfully, as the Boeing 737 was shown flying from Seattle to San Diego as Flight AS1108 the next day on September 14th. At the time of writing, the aircraft is currently on the grounds of Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), and is scheduled to fly from Las Vegas to San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at 9:00 AM local time today on September 16th as Flight AS613.

Previous Incidents

While not common, Alaska Airlines had a couple of incidents where flights had to divert due to unknown odors.

In June, a flight from Honolulu to Anchorage was canceled after two crew members reported ill during the boarding process due to an 'unknown odor'. Also in March, a flight from Portland to Phoenix had to return to Portland after passengers and crew members reported seeing fumes in the cabin. 

In 2019, a flight from Seattle to Orange County had to turn back to Seattle due to a 'cabin odor'. No crew members or passengers were hospitalized due to the incidents.