Jackson Rathbone: Twilight actor live tweets JetBlue plane's emergency landing after engine 'explodes' mid flight

Video: The actor live tweeted the moment his JetBlue flight had to make an emergency landing in California

Jackson Rathbone attends the iHeartRadio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 20, 2013. (David Becker | Getty Images for Clear Channel)

For most plane passengers, the worst experience of a flight is usually just a bit of harmless turbulence.

Yet for actor Jackson Rathbone, his wife, son and 139 other passengers, they had to experience a terrifying emergency landing after their plane experienced engine issues - and the actor tweeted the whole ordeal as it unfolded.

Rathbone, best known for his role playing Jasper Hale in The Twilight Saga, tweeted that Flight 1416 from Long Beach, California to Austin, Texas, had to turn back after its "right engine exploded" and "the cabin filled with smoke".

Video footage emerged online later showing a smoke-filled plane, passengers wearing oxygen masks and a baby crying while the pilot can be heard attempting to calm the travellers down.

Rathbone tweeted that the oxygen masks did not deploy at first and the stewardesses had to help people place the masks over their faces.

Rathbone then described praying as he prepared for the worst, but that in the end the landing was not "even all that rough".

JetBlue confirmed that Flight 1416 had to make an emergency landing after the crew reported an issue with the No. 2 engine. Flight 1416 had only just departed for Austin, Texas when it had to turn back after pilots got an overheating warning for one of the engines.

A spokeswoman from Long Beach Airport said that all 142 passengers - along with five crew - were evacuated by slides following the plane's emergency landing and that four passengers were treated for minor injuries, with one of them having to be taken to hospital.

Rathbone said that passengers felt angry and rattled following the experience, and while he was initially complimentary about the action of JetBlue's pilot and crew during the ordeal, his tweets became rather more sarcastic.

In the video below, the pilot can be heard telling the passengers, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a right engine failure. We're shutting down the engine and heading back to Long Beach at this time, please stay in your seats and we'll try to clear the cabin of smoke if we can. Thank you."

Officials said the plane was 9,400 feet above ground at the time it had to turn around.

Still, passengers were evidently thankful that the traumatic event had a happy ending for all involved, and Rathbone tweeted that he was celebrating his "near-death experience" with wine and champagne.