Spilled Coffee Causes U.S. Flight To Be Diverted

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

A spilled cup of coffee can ruin a shirt or it can force an emergency landing, as it did Monday night on a flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. During a moment of light turbulence, the pilot spilled coffee on some equipment in the cockpit. That caused a malfunction that radio-signaled a hijacking. The crew stopped the false alert, then decided to divert to Toronto anyway, where the 241 passengers spent the night.

This is MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.