If it had been flying to North Korea, Iran, or Iraq it would have been much worse!
Cheers, Ken Hanly Italian Plane Passengers See Flames, Vote to Land Mon Mar 4,10:14 AM ET MILAN (Reuters) - The pilot of a charter flight to Cuba from Italy that burst into flames during takeoff had passengers vote on whether to continue the 5,000-mile journey. The passengers, who had seen flames stream from one of the Yesair jet's engines, voted overwhelmingly in favor of returning to the ground, officials at Milan's Malpensa airport said on Monday. The pilot managed to get the plane into the air and announced that he had resolved the problem with the engine and planned to carry on to Cuba on the Sunday flight. But his reassurances failed to calm nerves among the 250 passengers and he called for the vote. Passengers, who had panicked after seeing the flames and smelled smoke in the cabin, told reporters that almost all of them had demanded to return to Malpensa. "I saw flames, it was incredible. It looked like the whole engine was about to go up," one unnamed passenger told state television news. No one from the Portuguese charter company Yesair was immediately available for comment, but an airline source in Milan said the plane had not been in danger. "One of the engines stalled very briefly. It turned itself off and then on again and there were flames. Apparently it is quite normal," he said, declining to be named. "The passengers saw the flames. Obviously they were scared. The captain asked them what they wanted to do -- continue across the Atlantic or return to the airport," he said. The airline source said it was not normal to let passengers decide the fate of a flight. The holidaymakers were scheduled to fly to Cuba aboard a different plane on Monday
