SEATTLE — A Hawaiian airlines flight bound for Honolulu was forced to return to the Seattle airport shortly after takeoff due to reports of fumes in the cockpit, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The agency previously said the crew reported smoke on the flight deck but later changed that to fumes.

Hawaiian Airlines Flight 21, an Airbus A330, took off at about 1 p.m. Monday from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport carrying 273 passengers and 10 crew members.

It was heading to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu when the crew reported the fumes, airline spokesperson Marissa Villegas told The Associated Press in an email.

“The captain declared an emergency to obtain priority handling and the Airbus A330 landed at SEA without incident,” Villegas said, and fire and medical personnel met the aircraft at the gate as a precaution and everyone onboard safely deplaned.

Once the aircraft was cleared, the Port of Seattle Fire Department boarded to investigate and did not find any smoke or smell, airport spokesperson Perry Cooper said via email.

Flight 21 left Seattle on Tuesday morning in a new aircraft, according to Villegas.

“Safety is our priority, and we sincerely apologize for this event,” she said.

The FAA is investigating.

Author’s note: This is the seventeenth installment of my weekly column, Barely Relevant.

Well, it’s over. And, for what it’s worth, the Seattle Seahawks had a pretty darn good year. Pretty darn good is a tough phrase to unpack, though, mostly because it doesn’t mean anything. How can something be pretty good? Something is either good or it isn’t. In that respect, anything under good is bad. Thus, pretty good = bad. Thus, the Seattle Seahawks’ 2024 season.

Yes, we’re guaranteed to finish with a winning record. No, we didn’t make the playoffs. Yes, we have a brand-new coaching staff. No, our preseason free-agent additions didn’t pan out like we had hoped they would. Yes, some people blame our quarterback. No, some other people don’t think it’s our quarterback. Yes, our offensive line was again one of the worst in the NFL. No, we didn’t run the ball like we’d wanted. Yes, we should keep DK Metcalf. No, we should not keep DK Metcalf.

The wild mood swings involved in being a Seahawks fan have a juxtaposing pendulum effect that bounces like a migraine between my two temples. What are the answers? Who the hell knows? Certainly not John Schneider. And certainly not me. All he can do is attempt to juggle Geno and DK contracts while continuing to try to bring in quality free agents, and all I can do is hang out on my couch and go “yes!” and “damn!” which are words that have zero currency or worth.

Because no matter what anyone (us included) says over the next nine months, nothing else matters except how the Seahawks play – on the field during the regular season – next year. Oh, we’ll speculate wildly. And we’ll throw numbers around and feign confidence about new free agent this and new draft pick that, but it doesn’t matter a hell of beans because it’s just mind football.

This, right now, is as far as you’ll be from a game that matters all year.

For some reason, though, it doesn’t feel all that bad. Am I alone here? I don’t know about you, but my expectations weren’t that high. And I kind of like mind football. Of course, it sucks we missed the playoffs – and it CERTAINLY sucks the way we missed the playoffs (f-ing helmet bounce [I’m deflecting blame here]), but, hell, our defense looks promising. Our new head coach seems to know what he’s doing, our running backs look like ballers (if we can find an offensive coordinator who knows how to utilize them), and our second-year wide receiver is ready for lift-off.

If we can manage to figure out our quarterback situation and pick up some offensive linemen, Seattle could be poised to make things interesting. For some reason, I’m already ready to talk all about it. And the draft! There’s no mourning period here. Let’s hurry up and end this season and get into it.

Of course, in the grand scheme of things, nothing is going to matter until we start playing games that count again. But who wants to wait nine months to play football? Not me. That’s why every sportswriter you know is going to begin playing mind football right now.

Join us.

RENTON, Wash. – While the Seattle Seahawks won’t have a playoff spot to earn in their season finale against the Los Angeles Rams as hoped with dominos not falling their way last weekend, coach Mike Macdonald’s squad won’t be packing it in with sights on the offseason on Sunday.

One day after the Seahawks were eliminated from playoff contention thanks to several teams they needed to win coming up short in Week 17, Macdonald declined to delve into the reasons why they failed to make the postseason in his first year at the helm, saying there will be plenty of time to diagnose those issues in coming weeks and months. Instead, his focus stayed solely on preparing for the week ahead as the team looks to reach double digit victories for the first time since 2020, even if reaching that goal won’t come with an NFC West title.

“The first thing is it’s an opportunity for us to go get to 10 wins and that’s important right now,” Macdonald told reporters. “There’s a standard here of what we’re trying to establish and show off our football character of what type of team we are, what type of people we are, and how we’re going to play. The situation has changed, but the situation really hasn’t changed to a certain extent as well. We’re going to play a good football team that won our division, and we want to get to 10 wins.”

With Sunday’s rematch at SoFi Stadium not having any relevancy in the standings and no bearing on the playoff race, it would be easy for Macdonald to use this game as a showcase for Seattle’s younger players with eyes towards 2025. To an extent, that may be the case at some position groups, especially if Los Angeles rests many of its starters as expected.

However, though Macdonald acknowledged veterans dealing with injuries that could be worsened by suiting up may be held out for precautionary reasons, the Seahawks plan to roll into Sunday with the mindset that a division title remains within reach and treat this like any other game. Starters will play as long as they are healthy or it is “safe for them to be out there” to ensure they give themselves the best chance to end the season on a winning note.

Among those who should be expected to suit up and start against the Rams, Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith will be looking to hit three incentives-based escalators on his contract worth $2 million apiece, including surpassing 4,282 passing yards and hitting 10 wins. He’s also currently sitting at a 70.2 percent completion percentage, positioning himself for an additional $2 million if he can stay above 69.755 percent per his escalator requirements.

As the week progresses, it should become more clear which veterans will be available to play for Seattle and which ones will likely be held out via injury reports. But as he emphasized over and over on Monday afternoon, Macdonald isn’t about to let playoff elimination alter how his team prepares and competes on a weekly basis, viewing this as yet another chance to help build a culture of winning as a stepping stone to bigger and better things in the near future.

“It’s not an optimum condition on how you’re going to play, but us as a football team and an organization, we have a really high standard about how we want to play, that’s what we’re chasing. Our football character, hopefully, gets shown to the world about what we’re about and how we operate, and let’s go be those guys that we’ve been the whole season.”

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