By: jchandler@losangelesregister.com, kablaza@ocregister.com

Jared West was headed home Thursday morning on a flight to Austin after visiting family in Fullerton. Not long after his plane took off from Long Beach Airport, the Dripping Springs, Texas, resident heard a “boom” on the right side of the plane. About 10 seconds later, the cabin filled with smoke. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling and passengers nearby were screaming and holding each other tight. Fearing this was his end, West, himself an amateur pilot, put on his oxygen mask and started recording a video message on his smartphone. “I said, ‘If anyone finds this, tell my mother that I love her,’” West, 34, said. But it wasn’t the end for West and the other 141 passengers and five crewmembers on JetBlue Flight 1416. Shortly after takeoff at 9:05 a.m., “an overheat warning” was reported for one of the aircraft’s two engines, airport officials said. Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Jake Heflin said the crew spotted smoke billowing from the engine and pilots deployed a fire extinguishing agent from the cockpit. Passengers exiting Long Beach Airport later that afternoon described flight attendants deploying oxygen masks and telling them to “brace, brace, brace!” The smoke in the cabin was so thick they couldn’t see, some passengers said. For a moment, passengers such as Upland resident Laura Andreasen, 57, who was aboard the airliner with her family traveling to Orlando, Fla., for a Disney cruise, feared for their lives. “I wasn’t sure if we were going to plummet or make it back,” she said. The airplane landed safely and the passengers and crew evacuated on inflatable slides. Three people were treated for injuries and released, and one was taken to a local hospital, Heflin said. One of the passengers had tailbone pain after using the evacuation slide, he said. The Airbus A320 was in the air for less than 30 minutes. After departing, it turned back and landed at the airport at 4100 Donald Douglas Drive at 9:29 a.m., city officials said. Some departures were delayed, and two flights from the Bay area that were scheduled to arrive before 11 a.m. were diverted. The aircraft was cleared and operations were back to normal by 11:15 a.m., but with some delays expected throughout the day, officials said. Jackson Rathbone, an actor who portrayed Jasper Hale in the movie “Twilight,” tweeted that he was on the plane. “Our right engine exploded and our cabin filled with smoke,” he wrote. “The doors were thrown open, once on the Tarmac. The stewardesses yelled for us to get out and as far away from the airplane as possible…I grabbed my son and jumped down the inflated ramp, my wife following. We left all our personal effects onboard.” Mission Viejo resident Cody Friend, 27, was on his way to his bachelor’s party in Austin with friends when the emergency landing delayed their plans. Though the experience shook them up, the group still decided to take another flight to Austin later in the day. “When we got off the plane, we had a big hug and decided the most important thing was to get a drink,” he said. Register staff writer Alma Fausto and photographer Bill Alkofer contributed to this report. Contact the writer: jchandler@losangelesregister.com, kablaza@ocregister.com