(CNN) –– A United Airlines flight bound for Honolulu returned to Denver International Airport on Saturday after an engine failure and debris from the plane that fell in a Denver suburb.
United Flight 328 returned safely to the airport at around 1:30 p.m. local time, an airport spokesman said.
That was about 20 minutes after the police in Broomfield, Colorado, say via Twitter they received reports that a plane flying over the Denver suburb had engine problems and “had thrown debris in several neighborhoods around 1:08 pm.”
“There are no reports of injuries at this time,” the tweet said.
Other police posts said the debris had landed in Commons Park and in the city’s Northmoor and Red Leaf neighborhoods, about 25 miles north of Denver and 31 miles east of Denver International Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed in a statement that a Boeing 777-200 returned safely to Denver International Airport after “proper engine failure shortly after take-off”.
“The FAA is aware of reports of debris near the plane’s flight path,” the statement said.
Debris from a United Airlines flight fell on a football field in Broomfield, Colorado on Saturday, February 20.
United Airlines told CNN there were 241 people, including 10 crew members, on Flight 328.
In air control communication with flight 328, obtained by CNN, the pilots are heard to make an emergency call. “We have experienced an engine failure,” they say in the recordings.
Rachel Welte, a spokeswoman for the Broomfield Police Department, reported at a press conference that the facility was receiving calls from residents saying they had heard a loud explosion.
“Then they actually started to see what they thought was an airplane that fell from the sky. What they were was rubble, ”Welte remarked. He also described the debris as “possibly some external parts of the aircraft.”
Police are working to secure the large debris field for the National Transportation Safety Board, which the FAA says will be responsible for the investigation.
“The board of directors has opened an investigation into the February 20, 2021 motorcycle event. Denver investigators are responding,” agency spokesman Peter Knudson told CNN.
Meanwhile, Broomfield police have warned residents not to touch or move the debris from the plane if they see it in their yard. Precisely because the National Transportation Safety Board “wants all the debris to remain in place for investigation.
Kieran Cain told CNN that he was playing with his children at a local elementary school when a plane flew over and they heard a loud crash.
“We watched it go by, we heard the big bang, we looked up, there was black smoke in the air,” Cain told CNN.
Debris started to rain down, and it looked like it was floating and it wasn’t very heavy. But if you look at them now, they are gigantic pieces of metal everywhere, ”he said.
“I was surprised that the plane went uninterrupted, without actually changing its trajectory or doing anything,” he said. “It just went on like nothing.”
Cain said he and his sons took shelter when debris fell.
CNN’s Pete Muntean contributed to this report.