24 Feb 2021
A United Airlines flight has been forced to make an emergency landing in Denver after one of its engines blew apart.
The Boeing 777, which was bound for Hawaii, returned to Denver airport not long after take-off over the weekend, while the explosion rained pieces of wreckage down on suburban neighbourhoods below.
According to passengers on board, the aircraft was almost at cruising altitude and the captain was giving an announcement when a loud bang shook the cabin followed by a bright flash.
David Delucia told
ABC News he was sitting across the aisle from the failed engine and that the plane began to “shake violently”, lost altitude and began to “go down”.
I thought we were going down : Here s what we know about the United Airlines engine explosion – Travel Weekly travelweekly.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from travelweekly.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Boeing calls for GLOBAL grounding of all 128 777s with same Pratt and Whitney engine that exploded over Denver - as officials reveal United jet suffered fractures to engine fan blades but full investigation could take a year
Boeing has called for the grounding of 128 of its 777 planes as US regulators investigate a United Airlines flight whose engine caught fire and fell apart
United Airlines said it will halt all flights by its fleet of 24 Boeing 777 airplanes with same type of engine involved in Saturday s emergency landing in Denver
United is the only US airline with the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 in its fleet, according to the FAA
Huge chunks of plane: What it looked like when a Pratt & Whitney jet engine exploded
Katie Dowd
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On Saturday, Feb. 20, residents of a Broomfield, Colo., neighborhood saw large chunks of a plane falling from the sky. Huge portions of the right engine, pieces of fiberglass and flakes of insulation rained down, just missing a home.
United Airlines Flight 328 on its was to Hawaii when its engine experienced a failure. The plane was able to land safely and no injuries were reported.
The engine on the Boeing 777-200 jet was a PW4000-112, made by Connecticut-based Pratt & Whitney. The company is now at the center of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation. Federal aviation regulators ordered United Airlines to step up inspections of all Boeing 777s equipped with that type of engine. United said it is temporarily removing those 24 aircraft from service.