The Scare Of Their Lives!
Passengers of American Airlines flight 988 bound for Miami got the scare of their lives yesterday when the plane had to make an emergency landing minutes after taking off.

The Boeing 737 with 138 passengers took as normal at 12:40pm from the Juan Santamaria international airport in San José. Minutes later, sirens surrounded the airport as a score of ambulances, fire trucks and emergency vehicles raced to the tarmac.

Traffic (Transito) police blocked off the area and the airport was shut down for more than one half hour, delaying a number of flights arriving and leaving the busy noon hour at the airport.

Witnesses say they saw the aircraft in the air with smoke spewing from the right side engine, while others claim to have seen actual flames.

Emergency crews on the ground were relieved that the airplane full of passengers and more importantly full of fuel had landed without an incident or any injuries to passengers.

A spokesperson for Alterra Partners, managers of the airport, said that passengers had been rerouted onto other flights and the airport returned to normal within minutes of the incident.

The airport was shut down while the airplane made the emergency landing and authorities were satisfied that the danger had passed.

Several flights were left circling the airport, as those on the ground waiting the arrival of friends and family had no idea of what was going on, other than flights on the arrival board showing "delayed".

American Airlines staff told passengers checking in on a later American flight that they knew nothing of what was happening outside, as word of the incident spread around the airport.

The cause of the engine problem is not yet known. The aircraft was moved to a secured area of the airport as investigators make a close inspection.