[News] United Airlines flight suffers engine failure, sending debris falling on neighborhoods outside Denver

[Dewey]

A United Airlines flight was forced to return to Denver International Airport Saturday after it suffered an engine failure shortly after takeoff, sending aircraft debris raining down on soccer fields, homes and yards in a Denver suburb.

United Flight 328 returned to the airport around 1:30 p.m. after suffering an engine issue, an airport spokesperson told CNN. The flight had been bound for Honolulu.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed in a statement that a Boeing 777-200 safely returned to the Denver International Airport after "experiencing a right-engine failure shortly after takeoff."
"The FAA is aware of reports of debris in the vicinity of the airplane's flight path," the statement said.
The flight returned about 20 minutes after the police department in Broomfield, Colorado, said via Twitter that it had received reports that an airplane flying over the Denver suburb had engine trouble and had "dropped debris in several neighborhoods around 1:08 p.m."
"No injuries reported at this time," according to the tweet.

Debris from the aircrat landed outside a home in Broomfield, Colorado, on Saturday, February 20.
Additional tweets from police said debris landed in Commons Park and the Northmoor and Red Leaf neighborhoods of Broomfield. The city is about 25 miles north of Denver and 30 miles east of Denver International Airport.

Images from the scene showed large pieces of debris lying in the front yards of homes and a soccer field at the local park. CNN affiliate KCNC shared photos showing the smashed cabin of a resident's pickup truck. Another CNN affiliate, KMGH, shared photos of a hole in the roof of a local home.
United Airlines told CNN there were 241 people, including 10 crew members, aboard Flight 328. All passengers have safely deplaned and are at a terminal in Denver, where the airline is working to get them on a new flight.
"United Flight 328 experienced an engine failure and safely returned to Denver. We are in contact with the FAA, NTSB and local law enforcement," United Airlines said in a statement. "The NTSB is investigating and has directed that any persons with debris from this event contact their local law enforcement agency."

Pilots report 'engine failure' in mayday call
Pilots are heard issuing a mayday call, telling air traffic controllers "we've experienced engine failure," according to air traffic control communications with Flight 328 obtained by CNN.
Police received calls from residents who said they'd heard a loud explosion, said Rachel Welte of the Broomfield Police Department at a Saturday news conference.
"Then they just started seeing basically what they thought was a plane falling from the sky. What it was was debris," Welte said, describing the debris as "possibly some exterior pieces of the plane."
Welte, speaking at the local park, stressed how much worse things could have been.
"We could have hundreds of people here and the fact that we're not getting reports of any injuries are absolutely shocking at this point," she said. "It's amazing."

Aircraft debris from a United Airlines flight on a soccer field in Broomfield, Colorado, on Saturday, February 20.
Police are working to contain the secure the large debris field for the National Transportation Safety Board, which will be in charge of the investigation, according to the FAA.
"NTSB has opened an investigation into the Feb. 20, 2021, engine event on a United 777. Denver-based NTSB investigators are responding," NTSB public affairs officer Peter Knudson told CNN.
In the meantime, Broomfield police cautioned residents to not touch or move plane debris if they see it in their yard as the NTSB "wants all debris to remain in place for investigation."

NTSB will 'figure out what happened'
CNN aviation and transportation analysts described the incident as an uncontained engine failure.
"Literally the engine exploding," said CNN transportation analyst Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the federal Department of Transportation.
Such an engine failure is more likely to occur at takeoff, she said, because "you have to request so much power from your engines to get them up there."

CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien echoed that statement, saying, "Generally speaking, you're stressing the system on departure. That's when the system is doing the most work."
"If there's a flaw hidden inside - between all those fans and turbines that are spinning around with such tremendous force and under such tremendous pressure and heat differentials - if there's a flaw inside there, that's when you're going to find out about Item."
Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the NTSB, told CNN the agency will "absolutely" be able to discover what happened. But he, like police, stressed that bystanders shouldn't touch the debris in their yards.
"There's an old saying that the first piece off the aircraft indicates where the accident occurred," Goelz said. "So they're going to be looking at the beginning of the debris field to see what pieces came off this engine first and what they look like."
"The NTSB will find the wreckage, they will analyze it, and this one, they'll figure out what happened."