Terrified passengers can be heard shouting and clapping with relief after experiencing a fiery mid-air engine failure as their United Airlines plane landed safely in Colorado.
The video shared with 9 News Denver captured Flt’s eerie silence. 328 as it approached its emergency landing Saturday afternoon when one of its engines caught fire and rained debris over Denver after urgent Mayday calls.
United Airlines said it provided hotel accommodation to those too traumatised to travel home, but admitted that a new flight to Honolulu was instead taken by most passengers.
On the plane or on the ground, there were no injuries, officials said.
Despite the stricken engine, the safe landing of the aircraft, which US media said had 231 passengers and 10 crew on board, occurred, photographs of which were captured and posted on Twitter.
The right engine ablaze and wobbling on the wing of the Boeing 777-200 was seen in a video taken from inside the aircraft, its cover completely missing as the aircraft soared over a barren landscape.
The 26-year-old jet was powered by two PW4000 engines from Pratt & Whitney.
Investigators would concentrate on what caused the crash, including if, officials and specialists said, a fan blade failed.
Boeing said the NTSB would be helped by its technical advisors with its investigation, while United vowed “to work with federal agencies investigating this incident.”
Engine failures are unusual, but potentially dangerous when rotating components pierce the outer casing, an occurrence known as an uncontained engine failure, which experts said was what seemed to have occurred on Saturday.
John Cox, a retired pilot who operates an aviation safety consulting company, Safety Operating Systems, said that pilots practise how to tackle such an occurrence regularly and can automatically shut off everything flammable in the engine, including fuel and hydraulic fluid, using a single switch.
