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Alaska Airlines Jet Diverted to Seattle after Cabin Pressure Problem; 14 Treated
An Alaska Airlines jetliner was diverted to Seattle after the plane's cabin failed to pressurize normally during a flight from Canada, an airline spokeswoman said.
The Boeing 737 landed safely Friday at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where medics treated 10 passengers and three crew members complaining of ear and sinus pain, airline spokeswoman Amanda Tobin Bielawski said.
She initially said they required no other treatment but later said the airline had learned four people were taken to a hospital. She did not have immediate details on their condition.
"There's nothing at this point to suggest that this is anything other than an isolated incident," Bielawski said.
An altitude warning alarm sounded when Flight 690 reached 33,000 feet (9,900 meters), indicating the air pressure in the cabin was lower than it should be, spokeswoman Caroline Boren said.
The plane's oxygen masks did not deploy because the situation was not severe enough to trigger them, Bielawski said.
The Seattle-based airline brought in another plane, which took the 122 passengers the rest of the way to San Francisco. The original flight had taken off from Vancouver, British Columbia.
