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A Southwest Airlines flight from Houston, Texas, to Cancun, Mexico, was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing after flames started shooting out from one of the engines on Tuesday (August 15).
Andrew Sandino was leaving work when he looked up at the sky and saw black smoke coming out of the plane's engine. He grabbed his cell phone and started recording as giant balls of fire shot out of the engine.
"I noticed big black plumes of smoke coming out the right engine, and then it started shooting really big fireballs out, and the plane was shifting back and forth, side to side, pretty heavily," Sandino told NBC News.
"I was thinking this plane may crash. If that engine just completely explodes and sends shrapnel everywhere, the plane is going to fizzle out and hit the ground," he added.
Coale Kalisek was on the flight and sitting in a window seat next to the engine. He told KHOU that he was trying to nap when the plane's sudden movement caused him to wake up.
"All I know is it started swinging like left to right, and I thought, I've been on a lot of flights," Kalisek told the news station. "I think I fly once or twice a month, and I knew that wasn't normal, and so I opened up my window, and I'm sitting next to the engine, and that whole engine you see like fireballs coming out of it."
Thanks to the pilots' quick reactions and training, the plane landed safely at Hobby Airport.
"The aircraft landed safely and was taken out of service for review," Southwest Airlines said in a statement.
The airline said the plane suffered a mechanical failure but did not provide additional details.
Southwest said that another plane was dispatched to take the passengers to Cancun. However, Kalisek and his girlfriend decided to skip the flight and return home after the terrifying experience.