Palisades Fire forces planes to divert as passengers film fiery chaos below

Wild images taken from an airplane captured the devastating Palisades Fire as flights heading into Southern California were forced to divert — and as the flames spread over nearly 3,000 acres with zero containment by Wednesday morning.Passengers aboard flights headed for Hollywood Burbank Airport were able to take photos of the horrifying orange blaze consuming the area before being rerouted away from the devastation.

Mark Viniello was on a United Airlines flight from Denver to Burbank Tuesday night when his plane was diverted to Los Angeles International Airport due to the monstrous flames, which he captured on video spreading below.After landing at LAX, the entire plane erupted into applause for how the pilot and crew handled the tricky reroute, with Viniello telling Newsweek, “It was an applause-worthy landing.” Tai Wright’s American Airlines flight heading to Burbank from Dallas was also diverted after the smell of smoke from the fires below began to fill the cabin.

“We were making our descent at the time of the photos.Right after taking them, the heat inside the aircraft started to rise, and the smoke smell filled the cabin,” Wright told the outlet.“The general mood of the flight got very tense and quiet up until we landed some 20 to 30 minutes afterward.

The entire landing was rocky, with the aircraft swaying and turning in all directions right up until touchdown, and everyone on board applauded with good reason after we touched ground.”Wright said she kept talking to those sitting around her to keep them — and herself — from panicking.“I had a lot of adrenaline rushing through me, and that didn’t fade until I arrived home in the Uber and finally cried it out,” she said.

Spooked travelers shared videos and images on X of the haunting aerial view of the Palisades Fire from flights landing in Los Angeles, with many noting the planes smelled heavily of smoke as they even entered the region.“Just landed into LA with a view of the ...