Passengers on board a United Airlines flight from New Jersey to Los Angeles were horrified to see flames spewing from the aircraft’s engine. The plane was forced to turn around shortly after takeoff and make an emergency landing.
United Airlines flight 1871 was met by fire trucks on the runway shortly after touching down on Wednesday evening, having left the airport only minutes earlier. Shocking eyewitness video taken by one of the passengers shows flames erupting from the aircraft’s right engine.
"Nothing sounded bad before it happened. Just while it happened," passenger Gabrielle Guzzy, who uploaded the footage, told PIX11.
“United 1871 from Newark, New Jersey to Los Angeles returned to Newark due to a mechanical issue. The flight landed safely and passengers deplaned normally,” United spokesperson Kimberly Gibbs said afterwards.
The airline did not elaborate on the issue further, but passengers claimed online that they saw the engine spark before shooting flames and failing altogether. The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation into the incident.
Passengers were originally scheduled to leave at 7pm local time, but had to wait until midnight for a rescheduled flight.
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