Hawaiian flight en route to Maui diverted to Seattle 12/28/10

By Wendy Osher

A Hawaiian Airlines flight bound for Maui from Portland was diverted to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday morning, December 28, 2010. Flight 39 left Portland, Oregon at 8:53 a.m. and arrived in Seattle two hours and 15 minutes after take-off.

Sea-Tac Airport Media Officer, Perry Cooper tells MauiNOW.com, “We responded to an alert call for a rudder trim call. The aircraft landed without incident and taxied to the gate,” said Cooper.

A trim control is the tab used on the trailing edge of an aircraft to aid in flight control and stabilization.

It’s not unusual for a flight heading over the ocean to use Sea-Tac as a landing option for diverted flights, as it is the closest airport by the earth curvature in the flight route before the ocean for most flights over the Pacific.