A United Airlines’ Boeing plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Texas Monday just minutes into its flight after flames exploded from one of its jet engines.
Shocking video shows the bright orange sparks shooting several feet out from beneath the left wing of the airplane, just inches away from the passenger windows.
The intense flames were so hot that they appeared almost white against the night sky.
“Hey ladies and gentlemen, we realized something happened outside,” a crewmember trepidatiously said over the intercom before the short video cut out.
United Airlines Flight 1118 immediately returned just before 7 p.m. to George H. Bush Intercontinental Houston Airport, where it had taken off just minutes before.
The plane was only “approximately 15 minutes” into the two-hour trip to Fort Myers, Florida when the incident occurred, passenger Dorian D. Cerda, who filmed the jarring video, told Storyful.
Fortunately, no one was injured in the terrifying ordeal.
United Airlines told Storyful in a statement “flight 1118 returned to Houston shortly after takeoff due to an engine issue.
“The flight landed safely and the passengers deplaned normally,” United Airlines said, adding that they “arranged for a new aircraft to take our customers to their destination.”
The plane was a Boeing 737-900, an aircraft with a similar design to the newer Max fleet that was grounded in January after a mid-cabin exit door plug was ripped off an Alaska Airlines plane flying over Oregon.
The cause of the United Airlines engine blaze has not yet been revealed and is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration.
