A Boston-bound AirTran flight that left Baltimore-Washington International Airport yesterday morning turned around and landed without incident after passengers detected "a funny smell" in the cabin, an airline spokesman said.
Maintenance workers later determined that a routine pre-flight check had caused oil to drip off an engine of the Boeing 717 and into the air-conditioning unit, said the spokesman, Tad Hutcheson.
Flight 496 landed at BWI at 12:10 p.m., nearly an hour after takeoff. The 51 passengers were put on another aircraft and arrived in Boston about 3 p.m., Hutcheson said.