Sixty seconds is all it takes for a routine domestic hop to feel like a scene from a disaster movie. That was the reality for passengers aboard a Southwest Airlines jet that departed from Orange County and, minutes after liftoff, had its crew declaring an emergency and rerouting the aircraft to Los Angeles International Airport, popularly known as LAX.
The incident, confirmed by the Los Angeles Times and later picked up by People magazine and Alabama-based outlet AL.com, has nothit