JetBlue Airways Plane Makes Emergency Landing

Southwest isn’t the only airline making emergency landings this week. Just this morning, a JetBlue Airways plane leaving Long Beach, CA on its way to Austin, TX was forced to circle back and land after climbing to just over 9000 feet. One of the engines reportedly developed problems on the Airbus A320. The inflatable slides were deployed once the plane was on the tarmac, and passengers were evacuated quickly.

One of the passengers, an actor most known for his work in The Twilight Saga, immediately took to social media. According to him, in his series of over fifteen live tweets, one of the engines “exploded,” and the passengers were “told to brace” as they “careened sharply back towards land.” He added that the oxygen masks did not deploy. Fortunately, according to one of the posts, a flight attendant manually deployed them.

JetBlue says that the pilots received a warning that one of the engines was overheating and, after seeing smoke in the cabin, deployed extinguishing agents. There were 142 passengers and 5 crewmembers on board. According to news reports, 4 individuals were evaluated and treated at the scene, but only 1 passenger was hospitalized following the incident due to shortness of breath.