Passengers vote to land after fire

MILAN, Italy -- Passengers on a plane that burst into flames during take-off from Milan were asked to vote on whether they wanted to land or continue the 5,000-mile journey to Cuba.

The pilot, who managed to get the Yesair jet into the air, told the passengers he had resolved the problem and planned to continue to the destination, but called for a vote when his reassurance failed to calm the nerves of the 250 passengers.

The votes were overwhelmingly in favour of returning to the ground after passengers saw flames coming from one of the engines during take-off, officials at Milan's Malpensa airport told Reuters on Monday.

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Travellers on board, who had seen flames and smelled smoke, 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 available to comment. An airline source in Milan said the plane was in no danger and that it was unusual to let passengers decide the fate of a flight.

"One of the engines stalled very briefly. It turned itself off and then on again and there were flames. Apparently it is quite normal," said the airline source.

"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."

The passengers on the Sunday flight to Cuba were scheduled to fly aboard a different plane on Monday.