Florida-bound flight forced to return to Cuba after bird strike causes engine fire, cabin fills with smoke

A Southwest Airlines flight to Florida from Cuba was forced to turn back Sunday after it struck birds that caused an engine to catch fire and fill the cabin with smoke, the airline said. No injuries were reported.
 
Southwest Airlines flight 2923 departed José Martí international Airport in Havana en route to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sunday afternoon. The aircraft “experienced bird strikes to an engine and the aircraft’s nose,” the airline said in a statement.  

No injuries were reported.

A passenger told WSVN that the impact sent fumes through the airplane and caused emergency oxygen masks to deploy.

“It was like a burn smell, and it was hurting my face. My eyes got real red, my chest started to burn,” Steven Rodriguez said.

Other passengers reportedly told the local NBC station WTVJ that their air masks did not deploy during the flight. Rodriguez told the station that “[p]eople started taking matters into their own hands and by force were punching the roof to eject the masks.”

“And people had bloody knuckles and all because they were punching the roof,” Rodriguez recalled, according to WTVJ. “There were little kids on the plane and elderly women.”

A passenger told WSVN that the impact sent fumes through the airplane and caused emergency oxygen masks to deploy.

“It was like a burn smell, and it was hurting my face. My eyes got real red, my chest started to burn,” Steven Rodriguez said.

After safely landing in Cuba, some passengers evacuated onto the wings through emergency exits and others used inflatable slides to leave the plane, WSVN reported.

The airline transported passengers and crew members to the airport terminal and planned to put the customers on a different flight to Fort Lauderdale, the station reported.

Southwest Airlines did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking additional information.

Another Southwest Airlines flight was diverted over the weekend from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina to Myrtle Beach, after an attempted landing at the original airport was aborted last minute at 1,350 feet, according to flight data and a passenger’s recollection, CBS affiliate WNCN reported. 

Passengers on that flight told the station that the plane shook “like crazy” prior to the attempted landing, causing one person to have a panic attack on board while multiple others vomited as the plane approached Raleigh. 

“It was quite a horrifying experience,” said one passenger, Nicholas Reed, in comments to the station.