United Airlines jet engine bursts into flames midair over Denver, drops debris into yard
The starboard engine of a United Airlines passenger jet burst into flames over Denver on Saturday — forcing an emergency landing and causing a huge piece of engine casing to land on a suburban front yard, officials and witnesses said.
Amazingly, no injuries were reported from on board Honolulu-bound United Flight 328 or on the ground — despite dramatic images showing the rattling, burning engine and the front yard wreckage.
The Boeing 777 took off from Denver International Airport at 12:49 p.m. with 231 passengers and 10 crew members on board but quickly experienced engine trouble and returned to Denver International Airport around 1:30 p.m., IFN News reported.
“Flight 328 @united engine caught fire. my parents are on this flight,” @michaelagiulia tweeted, along with video of the burning engine. “Everyone’s okay though!”
Passengers felt a violent shaking and saw a flash of light in the cabin.
Then the plane began losing altitude.
“We started going down,” recalled David Delucia, who told the Associated Press he was sitting directly across the aisle from the blown engine.
“When it initially happened, I thought we were done,” he said.
He and his wife took out their wallets, which contained their IDs, and put them in their pockets.
“In case we did go down, we could be ID’d,” he explained.
The circular casing from the blown engine landed in a front yard in the Denver-area suburb of Broomfield, where police sent out a Code Red to 1,400 residents asking them to look for additional debris.
Some of the debris pieces landed in a turf field in a Broomfield park, about 25 miles north of Denver.
“Please don’t touch or move any debris,” the Broomfield Police Department tweeted, along with photos of some of the scattered pieces.
The National Transportation Safety Board tweeted that it is probing the terrifying incident.
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