Families embraced at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport Monday morning breathing a sigh of relief after Sunday’s terrifying ordeal in the air.
Passengers shared videos with NBC 6 showing a smoke-filled cabin and people screaming on what was supposed to be a quick flight from Havana to Fort Lauderdale.
Janet Abbott was one of the 147 passengers aboard Southwest Airlines flight 3923 when the airline said birds struck one of the engines causing it to catch fire and fill the cabin with smoke.
“The smoke started coming into the cabin and they just said stay in your seats and we had to start breathing,” said Abbott. “People were screaming not knowing what to do and it was filling up with more smoke.”
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
According to passengers, the air masks did not deploy but a Southwest spokesperson said they did “not have any reports that indicate irregular deployment of masks.”
"I saw myself dying because we couldn't breathe," said another passenger, Jenni Gonzalez. "I was banging the roof of the plane because my mask would not deploy."
According to the National Library of Medicine, deployment of oxygen masks in a fire is not recommended by airline procedure because it causes a greater fire hazard.
Local
Wildlife strikes are not uncommon. In 2009, the widely known “Miracle on the Hudson” happened after a flock of birds struck the plane.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, since 1990 more than 250,000 wildlife strikes have been documented with most of those strikes coming from birds.
Thankfully, the latest incident did not end in tragedy. Southwest Airlines reported only minor injuries and credits the quick action of the crew for a safe landing at Havana’s Jose Marti airport.
"We were reborn yesterday," Gonzalez said. "All 150 of us were reborn yesterday."
