“Pratt & Whitney is actively working with operators and regulators to support the revised inspection interval of the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines powering the Boeing 777 aircraft,” the company said. “All further investigation updates regarding this event are at the discretion of the NTSB. Pratt & Whitney will continue to work to ensure the safe operation of the fleet.”
What happened during the flight?
“United 328 Heavy – Mayday Mayday … Denver departure. United 328 Heavy Mayday. Plane has just had an engine failure – needs to run immediately,” the air traffic noise from the plane sounded Saturday.
The PW4000 engine has 22 blades, researchers said, one of which was found in the jet engine’s containment ring. Another was found on a soccer field in Broomfield, Colorado.
One of the blades in the plane’s right engine broke loose at the hub, likely hitting another that had broken halfway through the wingspan, researchers said Monday. The first shows damage “consistent with metal fatigue,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt.
The fuselage of the flight also had damage to a non-critical composite piece designed to make the plane more aerodynamic, Sumwalt said.
Passengers on the plane saw the engine completely stripped of its outer casing, according to passenger Travis Loock’s video.
The mood was tense, Loock told CNN, but everyone was “very calm” on board when the pilot came to say they would be landing in four minutes.
‘My daughter was sitting on the window and … I was like,’ don’t look, let’s close it and just pray, ” said passenger Brenda Dohn.
The trail of damage
None of the passengers were injured. Neither were the residents around Broomfield because of the falling debris that stretched for a mile.
“We sent police officers and within minutes we were actually on the scene of some of these houses, and we even saw some of these large pieces of debris,” Rachel Welte, spokesman for Broomfield Police, told reporters Saturday.
Looking at the debris field and how busy the area was, Welte said, “the fact that we’re still not getting reports of injuries is absolutely shocking at this point.”
“In this park on a day like today, when it’s not as cold as last weekend, we can have hundreds of people here.”
“I’m sitting here looking at this piece of crap sitting in my driveway and thinking, ‘Oh my God, what am I supposed to do now?’” Klements said of the vehicle he put so much time and money into.
“We could see there was a giant black cloud of smoke high in the sky, immediately followed by, you know what looked like pieces of the plane,” Cain told CNN. “In short, a shower of things that fell from the sky.”
Community members may take time to receive benefits from United Airlines, but most standard insurance plans should cover “items that fall from the sky,” Carole Walker of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association told KCNC.
Where the research is heading
The engine in question will be removed from the plane for additional inspection, Sumwalt said.
Part of a knife will be examined Tuesday after it was flown by private jet to a Pratt & Whitney lab Monday night, where researchers believe they can determine how long the knife was damaged before it failed.
In the aftermath of the engine failure, Boeing recommended discontinuing use of 777s with a Pratt & Whitney 4000 engine, and United Airlines has already withdrawn them after the incident. Earlier Sunday, the FAA also issued an emergency order saying it would intensify inspections of Boeing 777 aircraft equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines.
CNN’s Gregory Wallace, Pete Muntean, Hollie Silverman, Alta Spells, David Williams, Konstantin Toropin, Chuck Johnston, Andy Rose, Gregory Clary and Lucy Kafanov contributed to this report.