An Austin-bound JetBlue flight that departed Long Beach Thursday morning was forced to turn back shortly after takeoff after the pilot declared an emergency with one of the engines, officials said.
The plane landed safely back at the airport at 9:30 a.m. Passengers evacuated the plane via emergency slides and were loaded into buses and returned to the terminal.
Officials say four people were treated. One person experienced some pain from going down the slide and two others wanted paramedics to check them out. Those three were released on scene.
A fourth person had breathing problems and was taken to the hospital.
Officials say slides were used because there was smoke inside the cabin.
Long Beach Airport was closed to commercial traffic briefly but it reopened at around 11:30 a.m. when the JetBlue plane was towed off the man runway.
The plane had 142 passengers and five crew members on board.
Agencies/Canadajournal