"I just saw the oxygen masks come down, and I just said, 'I'm too young to die. I'm not ready to die'!" said passenger Sammy Brown.

One by one, passengers aboard American Airlines flight 31 slid down a pair of inflatable chutes in the middle of a runway at Los Angeles International airport. The Boeing 757 made an emergency landing after the smell of smoke and haze filled the cockpit and cabin.

"We really didn't have any idea what was going on," said passenger Julie Brown, "So we didn't know if the plane was going to explode or land in the water."

One passenger snapped these pictures as flight attendants calmly helped people with their oxygen masks. The jetliner was about 20 minutes into the Honolulu-bound flight Tuesday morning, when the pilot reported the smoke.

Air Traffic controllers in Los Angeles quickly ordered the plane to return, and the emergency landing went smoothly. The 188-passengers and six crewmembers evacuated without major injuries.

L.A. firefighters scanned the plane with thermal imaging but never found a fire. Safety experts are now investigating what happened.

Most of the passengers bravely took another flight out to their Hawaiian holiday, while a few others decided they'd had enough adventure for one day.

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