HAVANA, Cuba – Panic engulfed passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight to Fort Lauderdale that departed Havana on Sunday and had to make an emergency landing after the right engine caught fire mid-flight .

After takeoff and as the plane climbed in search of altitude, one of the engines caught fire, for which the pilots had to perform a maneuver to return to the airport safely and land in an emergency.

Videos recorded by several Cubans who live in towns near the Havana airport captured the moment the plane began emitting smoke from one of the starboard turbines and was seen turning back to return to the Cuban terminal.

In a statement released by the Cuban Company of Airports and Airport Services, it was learned that it was a flight that departed at “12:05 p.m. today from José Martí International Airport, the Boeing 737 aircraft of the airline Southwest (SWA 3923) bound for Fort Lauderdale, during the take-off process, he detected failures in one of his engines, following the established procedure, his landing was authorized at the airport of La Havana.”

Cuban airport authorities themselves have confirmed that all “passengers have been evacuated and are in good condition. The causes that led to this event are being investigated.”

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Southwest Airlines said it will rebook all passengers on the next available flight, which is expected to be this Monday, as today’s last flight to Fort Lauderdale is sold out and the flight to Tampa is sold out.

All affected customers will receive a hotel reservation for tonight, the airline reported, which did not reveal any additional information related to what happened on the Havana-Fort Lauderdale flight.

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