Alaska Airlines Flight Forced To Land Due To Strong Odor

(RTTNews) - An Alaska Airlines flight from San Francisco to New Orleans was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Los Angeles on Sunday due to strong odor in the cabin.

The plane was forced to divert to LAX when a "strong odor was detected onboard during the flight in the aft cabin" and "the plane is being inspected by technicians to pinpoint the cause," a representative for Alaska Airlines told Fox News.

The plane landed safely at LAX around noon. The 136 passengers on board were rebooked on other flights.

Last week, an employee of Horizon Air, Alaska's sister airline, stole an empty passenger plane from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and took it on a 90-minute joyride. Richard Russell took off late on Friday, forcing the airport to close while two fighter jets gave chase. He performed stunts in the aircraft before crashing into a sparsely populated island in the Puget Sound, dying in the crash.

The 29-year-old had worked for Horizon Air for more than three years, towing and tidying aircraft and loading bags.