Hawaiian Airlines Flight Lands Safely After Reporting Mechanical Issue

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — An Airbus 330 passenger jet landed safely Monday at Los Angeles International Airport after reporting a possible mechanical issue.

Firefighters were standing by as Hawaiian Airlines Flight #3 touched down on Runway 25-R about 2:20 p.m, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Approximately 300 passengers were on board the flight, which left LAX just around 1 p.m. bound for Honolulu.

The plane had been reportedly burning off fuel before making its return to LAX.

Passengers say the troubles began long before the plane took off, with some telling CBS2/KCAL9 they wonder why officials still decided to clear a departure.

"It was like a massive fuel leak. And so we could see it from the terminal and it was just dumping fuel kind of like a waterfall," passenger Nea Kaopua said. "And so they had said they had fixed it and and whatnot and we took off. Maybe like an hour into the flight they had told us we had to turn around and we had to come back because it was still leaking fuel."

"Everything was OK when we landed. It was all good," another passenger said. "We circled around a few times up there and dumped the fuel and landed OK."

Some passengers opted to take a later flight. Others remained on-board, with officials reportedly telling them the issue would be fixed within hours.

Hawaiian Airlines had not immediately responded to CBS2/KCAL9's request for comment.