HAVANA, Cuba – Passengers on the Southwest Airlines flight that made an emergency landing in Havana this Sunday reveal the panic and horror they experienced after hearing the explosion in one of the engines from the plane and saw how the cabin began to fill with smoke which took their breath away.
“The only thing I did was write to my wife and say hello to my children that I love them,” recalls Jorge Montesino, one of the hundreds of passengers who managed to land safely after that the plane turned around in the air and returned from immediately to José Martí International Airport to get all the crew and passengers to safety.
But Montesino wasn’t the only one who managed to say goodbye to his loved ones, as many others also thought it was his last seconds alive.
Southwest airline flight 3923, which took off this Sunday at 12:05 p.m. from Havana, never reached its final destination in Fort Lauderdale, because a few seconds after leaving the airport, a failure of the right engine, caused by the shock of several birds, panic triggered.
Dulce Meléndez says it’s the “first time (that she’s had) such a bad experience, I thought we were going to explode in the air”.
“We were about to start entering the clouds and a very big explosion was heard,” recalls Jorge Montesino, one of the passengers on the flight who made an emergency landing this Sunday at Cuba. “The plane quickly filled with smoke and it was difficult to breathe.”
“And you could see the candle and the smoke coming in, I’m still affected,” says the passenger, shocked.
Steven Rodríguez says it was heard “like a big boom, like an explosion”, but everything became more tense after the masks fell from the compartment on the roof of the ship.
“People started to take matters into their own hands and forcefully banged the ceiling to eject the masks. And people had bloody knuckles and stuff from banging on the ceiling. There were small children on the plane and older women, ”repairs Rodríguez.
For her part, Yanlis Vargas also admits that she felt “scared … the problem is that she did not open where the masks fell, we had to break them”.
According to the National Library of Medicine, the deployment of oxygen masks in the event of a fire is not recommended for aerial productions (aerial productions) because the oxygen concentration increases, which increases the risk of fire.
In one of the videos posted to social media amid the chaos, someone is heard asking: who else has kids? As a man tries to identify all the minors on board, the parents frantically explain to their children that they must wear oxygen masks.
“Put it on like household spray,” a mother is heard saying amid the commotion and smoke that suffocated everyone on board.
The one controlling the ship was a woman. With only the left engine running, she was forced to declare an emergency landing and so she maneuvered the aircraft, turned around and landed with all passengers safely.
A task that passengers recognize as heroic: “The captain did a really good job”, says Vargas, who managed this Sunday to arrive on another flight to South Florida and find her husband with his son. .
Back in the cabin, as the plane approached the ground, the passengers desperately tried to cover their faces with their clothes.
“To be honest, I thought it was my time to go. I was terrified,” warns Steven Rodriguez. “I’m glad we’re still here.”
A few minutes later, the Boeing 737 finally landed. It was the first relief in the agonizing race to leave the fuselage.
Some who recorded videos of what happened are seen in panic covering their faces, others clutching what appeared to be an amulet with their hands, until the plane stopped and they can finally evacuate.
“We jumped into an inflatable channel, everyone helping each other, mothers with children, helping each other there,” Dulce Meléndez recalled.
Information yet to be confirmed indicates that during the emergency, at least two passengers were slightly injured. What is certain is that they all had the fear of their lives.
“Now, to get back on the plane, I will have a little time,” admits Yanlis Vargas.
But what Jorge is grateful for is that “thank God we are alive and we can tell the story”.