MILAN (Reuters) - Terrified Italian holidaymakers forced the pilot of a chartered plane to turn back and land after seeing flames shoot out of an engine during takeoff, airport officials said on Monday. The pilot of the Yesair jet, which left Milan's Malpensa airport on Sunday bound for Cuba, told the 250 passengers that the aircraft was safe, but his reassurances failed to calm nerves and he decided to put the issue to a vote. The holidaymakers elected overwhelmingly to abort the 5,000-mile journey and return to Milan. "I saw flames, it was incredible. It looked like the whole engine was about to go up," one unnamed passenger told state television news. But the chief executive of Portugal's Yesair company denied that flames had come out of the jet and said the plane had suffered a simple engine stall. "There were no flames. The passengers may have seen smoke, which is normal in these cases," Jorge Abrantes told Reuters from Lisbon. "The plane proceeded normally on its route and was already at cruising speed at a height of 28,000 feet when it was decided by consensus, due to the passengers' concern...to return to Malpensa," he added. "There was not even an emergency call. The plane landed, disembarked the passengers and returned to Lisbon," he said. The holidaymakers finally flew out of Milan on Monday on a different plane.