Initially Thought To Have A Mechanical Issue

An American Airlines E-175 departing from El Paso, TC for Chicago was forced to make two emergency landings back at the airport Monday.

Flight 3880 initially departed El Paso (KELP) at about 1:00 p.m. local time, but returned to the airport about an hour after takeoff after the crew reported a mechanical issue with the airplane. The plane circled for about a half hour before landing at 2:30 p.m., according to a report from television station KVIA.

The plane was checked out by a maintenance crew, which determined that the "possible mechanical issue" reported by the crew turned out to be a "false indicator". The flight then was cleared to depart again for Chicago, and did so at around 4:00 p.m.

But about four minutes into the second flight, it returned again to KELP for another emergency landing. The reason for that second return has not been reported.

American said in a statement to the station that a third flight departed for Chicago at around 6:30 p.m. on another airplane, and the passengers eventually arrived safely in The Windy City at about 10:30 p.m.

(Image from file. Not incident airplane)

FMI: Source report