Debris from a United Airlines Boeing 777 landed by a home in Broomfield, Colorado
DENVER (Colorado, US), Feb 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A United Airlines Boeing 777-200 jet with 241 people aboard landed safely with no injuries at Denver International Airport after engine failure caused debris to fall Saturday afternoon about 25 miles away.
United Flight 328 bound for Honolulu experienced “a right-engine failure shortly after takeoff,” around 1 p.m. MST, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed in a statement.
The 231 passengers and 10 crew members disembarked from the two-engine plane on a runway and took buses to the terminal, the FAA saidV.
About 25 miles south in Broomfield, the police department posted on Twitter it received reports that an airplane had engine trouble and had “dropped debris in several neighborhoods around 1:08 p.m.”
Reports said debris had fallen on soccer fields, homes and yards in the Denver suburbs.
The debris was described as “possibly some exterior pieces of the plane,” Rachel Welte of the Broomfield Police Department said at a news conference. She said she was surprised no one on the ground was injured.
The extent of property damage was unclear, according to North Metro Fire.
The National Transportation Safety Board is in charge of the investigation, according to the FAA. According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was built in 1995 and has Pratt & Whitney engines.
Police said the NTSB “wants all debris to remain in place for investigation” and urged people not to touch or move the items.
United Airlines officials are working to schedule passengers on a new flight to Honolulu.
America’s worst aviation disaster 41 years ago involved a jet engine falling off.
On May 27,1979, one of the three engines of an American Airlines DC-10 taking off from O’Hare International Airport bound for Los Angeles fell off and landed on the runway.
The plane rolled over in the air and plunged to ground less than a mile from the runway in Elk Grove Village, killing all 271 aboard and two on the ground. — NNN-AGENCIES