United 328 Loses an Engine, Miraculously Lands Safely in Denver
Chalk this one up to “not something you see every day.” United 328 from Denver to Honolulu had an engine blow out, raining debris down on the houses around the airport today. Luckily, no one on the ground and no one in the plane was hurt.
The Boeing 777 was well over 25 years old and one of the oldest 777 in service to date. The pilots did a masterful job of landing the plane safely while keeping their calm through the entire process.
The photos and videos, however, show a terrifying situation that could have ended much differently.
Twitter Tells the Story of UAL 328
JUST IN: Denver International Airport officials tell us United Airlines Flight 328 bound for Honolulu returned to the airport after an engine problem. Neighbors heard a loud boom, took these photos of what look like Boeing 777 engine nacelle in their yards. pic.twitter.com/mklpz3VG4F
— Pete Muntean (@petemuntean) February 20, 2021
Check out this video of the moment when the engine actually exploded from the dash cam of a driver nearby.
The actual moment the engine of #UAL328 exploded over Broomfield! https://t.co/R4IGa53XMA
— SkyFox720 🌊🌊🌊 (@SkyFox720) February 20, 2021
And this video of the parts falling out of the sky. Unreal.
United Airlines Boeing 777 operating as flight 328 flying from Denver – Honolulu suffered a serious engine failure on takeoff.
It made an emergency landing and everyone is ok.
Check out these pieces of the engine falling from the sky…pic.twitter.com/1IyBj6Nlf2
— Rex ChapmanðŸ‡ðŸ¼ (@RexChapman) February 20, 2021
Now, just imagine that you’re looking out of your window on the flight and you see THIS…
Flight 328 @united engine caught fire. my parents are on this flight 🙃🙃 everyone’s okay though! pic.twitter.com/cBt82nIkqb
— michaela🦋 (@michaelagiulia) February 20, 2021
It’s important to note that air travel is still one of, if not THE safest way to travel in the world. These planes are well maintained and the pilots who fly them undergo hundreds of hours of training to handle situations like this.
Follow the Broomfield PD Twitter for all the best and new information.
(featured image from Twitter @ChadSchnell)
February 20, 2021
Shit happens. It’s not a miracle. It’s called training asshole!
February 21, 2021
Thanks for your enlightening comment! It provided so much value 🙂
February 22, 2021
“It’s called training asshole!” ====> “Training assholes” is usually called “potty training”, isn’t it?
So all the pilots are potty trained, ‘eh?
February 21, 2021
“Miraculously landed” attributes the outcome incorrectly. Training and skill are the operative differences that create these outcomes….
February 21, 2021
I dunno man. It’s pretty miraculous that the engine stayed in one piece.
February 22, 2021
Losing an engine really isn’t a big deal in the general case, even on a twin engined aircraft. They don’t have half the power needed to fly in each engine: when there are two, the aircraft is certified to still perform reasonably well on one. Crews practice engine-out operations all the time, in much more “exciting” conditions like right after takeoff. This is one of the easier scenarios – lots of altitude to start with and a short distance to a runway.
The more interesting aspect of this is that two-engined aircraft are certified for long over-water legs under Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards (ETOPS). The engines have to meet stringent reliability criteria, and if FAA gets the notion that these engines aren’t up to ETOPS standards, they’ll revoke the authorization or impose limits on how far from a suitable landing airport the aircraft is allowed to operate, which affects all kinds of things. It will be interesting to see what they find caused this…
February 22, 2021
[“It’s pretty miraculous that the engine stayed in one piece.”] ====> ONE piece, you say?
Looked like some in the air, some on the ground, some never found.
That’s a LOT more than “one piece” by my arithmetic.
You doing one of those “new math” calculations, or maybe a “participation trophy” where “correct answers” are “too racist” to mention?
eg. “Triangles have 180 degress of contained angles on a flat, 2-dimensional plane, but 270 degrees when contained on a 3-dimensional shpere.”
February 27, 2021
Not even sure what the hell you’re talking about but… I’ll leave this right here in the comment thread
February 27, 2021
And it’s spelled sphere 🙂
February 22, 2021
click bait article. No miracle here, just good training. You insult the skill, experience, and training pilots have to deal with just such an emergency. There is also a containment shroud circling the compressor which is designed to contain the compressor rotor blades should the compressor fail.