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A passenger plane was forced into an emergency landing after its engine exploded and burst into flames mid-air.
The United Airlines flight to Fort Myers, Florida had just set off from Houston when the incident unfolded around ’15 minutes’ into the flight.
Video footage shows flashes of orange sparking from the rear of engine, illuminating the night sky as a voice speaks over the airplane’s intercom.
They said: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we realise something happened outside.’
Moments later, the flight returned to George Bush Intercontinental Airport where it made an emergency landing around 7pm on Monday.
No injuries were reported.
United Airlines said ‘the flight landed safely and the passengers deplaned normally’, adding it ‘arranged for a new aircraft to take our customers to their destination’.
Passenger Dorian D. Cerda told Storyful the plane was ‘approximately 15 minutes’ into the two-hour trip when the incident occurred, with the jet landing just before 7pm.
The cause of the ‘engine issue’ is not yet known.
The hole left after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plan mid-flight, which involved a Boeing 737-900 MAX model similar to the 737-900 that had to make an emergency landing after its engine caught fire (Picture: National Transportation Safety Board/AP)
It is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).
The plane involved in the incident was a Boeing 737-900 aircraft, a model similar in design to the newer Max planes, which were grounded after a mid-cabin door was ripped off during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
Some passengers threatened legal action over the trauma they sustained as a result.
Kyle Rinker and two other passengers are seeking $1 billion from Boeing and Alaska Airlines.
A six-week audit of manufacturers Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems by the FAA concluded this week.
The review ‘found multiple instances where the companies allegedly failed to comply with manufacturing quality control requirements’.
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