Passengers on United Airlines Flight 1168 experienced a scary situation as the plane descended into its destination airport on Sunday night.
The United flight was traveling from Newark to Houston with 174 passengers and six crew members when it began to experience engine trouble as it neared George Bush Intercontinental Airport, prompting the pilot to declare an emergency when the airlines/united-flight-makes-emergency-landing-after-engine-explosion.html” target=”_self” rel=”nofollow noopener noreferrer”>engine shut down.
Chris Morrison said he was woken by a loud bang and saw a flash of light out of his window.
“People were starting to panic,” he said. “Everyone kept hitting the flight attendant call button.”
“I noticed as we were coming into Houston airport, I heard sounds that I don’t normally hear when I fly,” passenger Leonard Weiner told Houston media outlets.
One passenger even claimed to see flames from the engine, though an FAA spokeswoman said that emergency responders didn’t find any evidence of a fire or smoke.
Eventually, the captain told everyone to evacuate and passengers were made to jump onto emergency slides. Travelers reportedly had to wait on the tarmac for about half an hour before being taken to the United Club.
While no injuries were reported on the plane, United spokeswoman Rachael Rivas said a few people suffered minor injuries while evacuating.
When the plane catches fire while landing so you evacuate on the tarmac pic.twitter.com/V4Zmbl3PA4
— Philip Twain Morrow (@PhilipTwain) March 11, 2019
United Airlines released a statement to Eyewitness News that read:
“United flight 1168 from Newark, New Jersey, to Houston experienced an issue with one of the engines shortly before landing. After landing safely, customers were evacuated from the aircraft and were bused to the terminal. Local authorities responded immediately and our maintenance team is currently inspecting the aircraft.”
FAA authorities are investigating the incident.
