“It was raining metal,” Cain said the man told him.
And yet the plane kept going.
The United Airlines flight, Honolulu-bound with more than 200 passengers, returned to Denver International Airport shortly after takeoff Saturday afternoon following an engine failure, strewing debris at least a mile wide in yards and a park where children play, authorities said. Police in Broomfield, Colo. — about a half-hour drive north of Denver — sent out a “code red” urging about 1,400 people to check their yards for fallen wreckage.
But miraculously, officials said, not a single injury has been reported, and Flight 328 made it back safely to the airport.
Broomfield Police spokeswoman Jennifer McIntyre told The Washington Post that the park would have been far busier — with crowds of children playing soccer — in pre-coronavirus times. “And we actually had a nice day today, almost into the 50s, but luckily the park wasn’t that populated,” she said.
United Airlines said Saturday evening that all passengers and 10 crew members have left the Boeing 777 and that it was working to get its customers on a new flight to Hawaii within “the next few hours.” The company confirmed that its flight “experienced an engine failure shortly after departure.”
The company did not immediately respond to questions about the potential cause of the breakdown. The FAA said Saturday that the National Transportation Safety Board would lead an investigation.
“Need to turn — mayday,” the pilot on Flight 328 said in a call to air traffic control as the situation spiraled, his voice betraying little emotion.
Broomfield Police said they got reports of debris dropped in “several neighborhoods” at about 1:08 p.m. local time. They urged people to call in about wreckage as patrol officers searched for it and shared a photo of a giant metal ring that crashed into a front yard — the home of the man Cain recalled speaking with on CNN.
Other hunks of the engine wound up on the turf field at Commons Park in Broomfield. “Please avoid the area if possible,” police urged.
McIntyre confirmed that debris went through the roof of at least one house.
A video circulating on social media, reportedly taken from Flight 328, showed orange flames coming out of a rattling engine. The Twitter user who posted the clip, and who said their parents were onboard, did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s inquiries.
United did not respond to questions about the video clip, but Broomfield Police shared it on Twitter. “Unbelievable,” they said.
Discover more from Today Headline
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.