Aircraft waste rains in Denver area before United flight lands safely | Denver Gazette

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An engine failure aboard a commercial flight departing from Denver International Airport rained debris into a neighborhood in Broomfield before the plane and its 231 passengers and 10 crew landed safely on Saturday afternoon.

Airport authorities say United Airlines Flight 328, which departed at 12:15 PM, was bound for Honolulu when the incident occurred.

Broomfield police received a call at 1:09 p.m. about debris falling from the sky, officials said. The plane returned safely to the airport at 1:30 am.

David Delucia, a passenger on the plane, recalled a loud, rattling explosion in the cabin, a fierce flash and 20 minutes of fear before landing.

RELATED:

Video of the explosion of the aircraft engine and debris

“The plane started to shake violently and we lost altitude and we started to descend,” Delucia told the Associated Press.

Delucia said he and his wife moved their wallets – which contained their driver’s licenses – to their pockets so that they could be more easily identified if the plane crashed.






Debris from emergency landing aircraft

A piece of debris from a commercial plane is marked by police tape where it landed along Midway Boulevard in Broomfield, Colorado, as the plane dropped parts while making an emergency landing at nearby Denver International Airport on Saturday, February 20, 2021.




“I thought we were done,” said Delucia, sitting directly across from the broken engine. “I thought we were going down.”

On the ground, parts of the twin-engine Boeing 777-200 plane, including pieces of a jet engine hood, landed near homes northwest of Denver. At least one house was directly hit by debris.

Maryann Klements and her husband, Kirby, were enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon in their living room when a “supersonic” thump shook their entire house.

“I can’t even try to describe how hard it was, but I looked at my husband and said ‘what was that?

“A little later we walked out and saw this big round thing in our yard and we went into shock.”

The debris only damaged their truck and some of the siding and gutters. But they knew it could have been much worse.

“If it had been 10 feet different, it would have landed on top of the house,” Kirby Klements told the Associated Press.

“It could have turned out very differently, but I am very grateful that everyone seems to be safe,” said Maryann.

The Federal Aviation Administration told Gazette news partner 9News that the plane’s right engine shut down shortly after takeoff. It was unclear what caused the engine to shut down or why the problem was causing parts of the jet’s housing to separate from the aircraft.

In the past, this was indicative of a turbine malfunction, allowing pieces of the jet engine to shoot through the housing at high speed.

Neighbors also reported noises from an explosion, which would be consistent with an uncontrolled turbine failure.

Tracking on the website www.flightaware.com shows that the jet took off and circled the field before landing.

A video posted to Twitter on the ground by witnesses showed an apparent explosion before the debris fell.

Authorities said the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the engine failure.

“If you find debris, don’t touch or move it,” Broomfield police tweeted. “The @NTSB wants all the debris to stay in place for research. “

Please contact Tom Roeder: 636-0240

Twitter: @xroederx

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