Avelo Airlines Emergency Landing At Tweed Reports Are False: Officials

EAST HAVEN, CT — Facebook posts and misinformation led officials and Avelo Airlines to correct what was being reported Sunday: that an Avelo plane had made an emergency landing. It did not happen.

East Haven Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli shared a screenshot of a Facebook page On Scene Media report that headlined, "Emergency Landing at Tweed." The social media page listed as a "news/media company" reports on public safety and other incidents, saying it provides "super local news coverage focused in and around New Haven." The page has more than 66,000 followers.

"This morning, a parked Avelo aircraft at Tweed was subject of speculation that it made an emergency landing. Contact was made by the East Haven Fire Department with Airport Operations who advised this aircraft was parked and not subject of an “Emergency Landing” as a media report speculated. No calls for an “Alert 1 or 2” were received in either the New Haven or East Haven 911 centers. Both East Haven and New Haven sent crews to investigate the report. We do not know how the report was initiated."

Soon after, Marcarelli said the "original report was generated by “Keep Tweed Small.”

The vocal group describes it as "Residents against Tweed Airport Expansion through East Haven." One of its organizers wrote several hours later, "Apparently the Avelo plane parked on the grass was there so it was out of the way. No emergency! Thank you for the information. Strange place to park a 737! But what do I know!"

And, when some suggested that there may have actually been an incident noting that water had been sprayed near the aircraft, Marcarellli explained said that when he saw the On Scene Media post, he contacted the New Haven Fire Department.

"NHFD sent a truck at 10:17 with a Battalion Chief after I called them based on OSM reports. At that time our Battalion Chief had already checked it out after seeing the same OSM report. As far as the “spray” I have no explanation as water is not the preferred agent for firefighting aircraft incidents, foam is. Water is used for training because of the cost of foam, and it’s environmental impact. FAA requires regular and frequent training on the use of ARFF trucks and being a weekend it’s probably a good time to train."

Tweed New Haven Airport took to Facebook to clear up the rumors that spread across social media.

Later, On Scene Media apologized.

"Good Morning New Haven Community,

We want to publicly apologize for the confusion this morning. NO, there was no emergency that took place this morning. We got several photos of a plane on the grass at the airport. The reports stated that there was an emergency landing and people were evacuating. We have found that the plane was parked on the ramp, due to airport maintenance. We work extremely hard to get all news out in real-time and understand that sometimes we get untruthful reports. We have worked with local and federal agencies to confirm this was NOT A TRUE event. Please accept our apologies."

The On Scene Media Facebook group creator told Patch he shared the source of the report and images with both Tweed New Haven Airport and Avelo Airlines.