Emergency Landing Scare on Flight to Israel After Engine Failure

A Smartwings flight that took off overnight Monday from Prague to Israel was forced to return to its departure airport after a problem was discovered in one of the plane’s engines shortly after takeoff. The incident ended without injuries, and all 189 passengers later continued on to Israel aboard a replacement aircraft, following a delay of about five hours.

The problem occurred shortly after takeoff, when passengers heard an unusual noise that prompted the flight crew to conduct checks. Based on what they found, the decision was made to return to Prague Airport as a precaution. Emergency and rescue crews were stationed at the airport ahead of the plane’s arrival, and it landed safely.

Singer Adi Cohen was among the passengers, traveling with her husband. Shortly after landing, she shared what she had experienced in an Instagram story: "We made an emergency landing on the way back home from Prague. One of the engines stopped working 15 minutes after takeoff. It was one of the scariest moments I’ve ever experienced. We’re back on the ground, thank *Hashem*."

Speaking with the mako website, Cohen recounted the sequence of events. "We were on vacation in beautiful Prague, and we had a flight back to Tel Aviv at 11:45 p.m. We boarded the plane, and everything was normal. Twenty minutes after takeoff, everyone was already tired and some people had fallen asleep, when suddenly there was a loud bang and the plane jolted."

Cohen said that after the unusual noise, passengers began to realize something was wrong: "In hindsight, some passengers said they saw some kind of ring of fire or flame coming from the engine area. I immediately felt that something was wrong. It didn’t feel like turbulence or anything like that. We thought maybe a bird had gotten into the engine. We started losing altitude, and I really went into a panic. People were very frightened, there were screams too, but I just froze."

According to Cohen, passengers were not told what was happening for long minutes. Only after the plane had already begun descending to a relatively low altitude did the captain provide an explanation: "Only then did the pilot announce that we had to return for an emergency landing because one of the engines had stopped working. Hearing something like that is very, very stressful. My mind immediately went to my children, and I started imagining all the worst-case scenarios."

The tense moments reached their peak during the approach to landing: "As we got closer to landing, it really felt like a scene from a movie. The flight attendants started shouting, 'brace, brace, brace,' and only afterward did I understand that it was the emergency position for landing. Someone in the back also fainted, and quite a few people were busy lifting his legs. I was sitting in an emergency-exit seat, so I tried to remember what they had told me in the instructions. It was not pleasant at all."

After the plane landed safely in Prague, around 14 emergency vehicles, ambulances, and police forces were waiting at the airport. Passengers disembarked and were later assigned to a replacement flight scheduled for the early morning hours: "We returned to the airport in Prague, got off the plane, and were given a new flight for 4:30 in the morning. In the end, we boarded at 5:30, took off, and arrived in Israel at around 10 in the morning."

She concluded with a profound sense of relief alongside the trauma left by the incident: "It’s nice to be back in Israel. It was a very stressful experience. There’s no doubt that every time I get on a plane, this experience will stay with me."