Flight from Cuba to Florida Filled with Smoke After ‘Bird Strikes’ to Engine

A Southwest plane flying from Havana, Cuba, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, filled with smoke and had to make an emergency landing on Sunday after birds hit one of the plane’s engines.

NBC 6 reported a flight coming from José Martí International Airport suffered an engine fire and had to return to Havana.

The plane “reportedly experienced bird strikes to an engine and the aircraft’s nose shortly after takeoff,” Southwest indicated in a statement to NBC 6

A video obtained by the outlet shows passengers putting on oxygen masks as the cabin fills with smoke.

“People started taking matters into their own hands and by force were punching the roof to eject the masks.” one passenger explained to the outlet. “And people had bloody knuckles and all because they were punching the roof.”

Multiple passengers told NBC 6 that oxygen masks did not immediately deploy. 

“To be honest, I thought it was my time to go,” he added. “I was terrified.”Another passenger told the outlet that after learning the plane’s engine was on fire, he texted his wife asking her to tell their children he loved them. 

The Associated Press noted no injuries were reported.

Data from the flight-tracking site FlightAware indicates the flight later arrived in Fort Lauderdale three hours and 15 minutes late at 4:25 p.m.

In February, as Breitbart News noted, a flight from Thailand to Russia suffered an engine fire on the runway. No injuries were reported. The passengers were ultimately taken back to the terminal and given food and accommodations until they were able to board a rescheduled flight around noon the next day.

In August, a small plane made a crash landing on a California freeway after its engine failed. During the landing, the plane reportedly hit a truck with three people inside. Happily, the occupants of both the plane and the truck emerged uninjured.