A commercial jet was evacuated after reports of electrical sparks sent fire crews to LaGuardia Airport Saturday morning, officials said.

Passengers deplaned from Spirit Flight 197 to Fort Lauderdale just before 11 a.m., the airline said in a statement.

Airline spokesman Stephen Schuler said the sparks were coming from “a generator which provides electricity to the plane when it’s on the ground” and immediately shut itself off. He said the airline apologizes for the inconvenience.

Passenger Andrew Kuslansky, 34, said he saw smoke coming from the area of an engine shortly after an attendant closed the cockpit door for takeoff.

Just emergency evacuated off @SpiritAirlines flight 197 plane was smoking on second engine start pic.twitter.com/NJciPbARxu

— Andrew Kuslansky (@ajkuslansky) December 26, 2015

“There was a pretty big white plume of smoke that wouldn’t stop,” he said. “I said to my wife, ‘The plane’s on fire.’ She was like, ‘Shut up.’”

Kuslansky was headed off on vacation with his wife and two kids. The airline’s maintenance team was evaluating the plane and conducting safety checks before clearing it for takeoff.

.@SpiritAirlines is so disorganized getting bags off the evacuated plane. This guy has taken it upon himself! pic.twitter.com/RdqFenSKdC

— Zach Staggers (@ZachStaggers) December 26, 2015