DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Passengers said they could barely breathe Tuesday and their plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Daytona Beach International Airport. The Spirit Airlines Flight 433 was headed from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale when the powerful smell of something burning filled the cabin, but there was no smoke.

The smell was so overwhelming, three passengers were wheeled out of the terminal and ambulances took them to Halifax Medical Center with breathing problems. Several others said, after the experience, they are not willing to get on another flight to get to Fort Lauderdale.

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Passengers described the odor as an acrid smell, but no noticeable haze or smoke was visible in the interior of the plane.

"It was an acrid, electrical smell, like an electrical fire," passenger Nicole Romero said. "I was thinking we were going to crash, that there was a fire, and that was going to happen."

"It was like a wave. It was from the first couple rows and eventually everyone was coughing from rows one through 10," passenger Jack Hartung said.

The crew told passengers they would be descending quickly, but oxygen masks did not pop out like passengers expected them to.

"We had to open up the door and the doors didn't open up automatically. So you really had to jam them, really reach in and pull them down. So that was kinda scary. So people were kinda panicking, a little bit," Hartung said.

Spirit Airlines said, once the plane landed and the engines were shut down, the smell went away. The airline said it was bringing in another plane to transport the passengers to their intended destination.

But the incident was scary enough that some passengers didn't want to wait in the terminal for another flight to Fort Lauderdale. David Cohen and his daughter headed outside to make the drive in a rental car instead.

"My dad told me it was going to be okay. I was just holding on to him real tight. I was kinda scared though," the girl said.

The Orlando Operations Manager for Spirit Airlines traveled to the Daytona Beach International Airport to assist in the situation, because Spirit does not operate from DBIA.