Debris from United Airlines Boeing 777 fell onto Denver suburbs during an emergency landing Saturday after one of its engines suffered a catastrophic failure and rained pieces of the engine casing on a neighborhood where it narrowly missed a home.
Authorities said the plane landed safely, and nobody aboard or on the ground was reported hurt.
The Boeing 777-200, which was scheduled to fly to Honolulu in Hawaii, diverted back to Denver and landed safely at 1.30pm local time, about 30 minutes after takeoff.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the Boeing 777-200 returned to the Denver International Airport after experiencing a right-engine failure shortly after takeoff. Flight 328 was flying from Denver to Honolulu when the incident occurred, the agency said.
United said in a separate statement that there were 231 passengers and 10 crew on board. All passengers were to be rebooked on a new flight to Hawaii, the airline said.
Boeing declined to comment and referred questions to United.
Since the American-made Boeing 777 wide-body jet airliner made its maiden flight in June 1994, it has been involved in 29 aviation incidents and accidents that have claimed the lives of 541 people.
