“Pratt & Whitney is actively coordinating with operators and regulators to support the revised inspection interval for Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines that power Boeing 777 aircraft,” said the company. “Any other investigative updates on this event will be at the discretion of the NTSB. Pratt & Whitney will continue to work to ensure the safe operation of the fleet.”
What happened on the flight
“United 328 Heavy – Mayday Mayday … Departing from Denver. United 328 Heavy Mayday. The aircraft just had an engine failure – it needs to turn immediately,” the aircraft’s air traffic audio played on Saturday.
The PW4000 engine has 22 blades, researchers said, one of which was found housed inside the jet engine’s containment ring. Another was found on a football field in Broomfield, Colorado.
One of the propellers of the plane’s right engine came loose in the center, probably hitting another that was broken halfway, investigators said on Monday. The first shows damage “consistent with metal fatigue,” said NTSB President Robert Sumwalt.
The flight fuselage also had damage to a non-critical composite part designed to make the plane more aerodynamic, Sumwalt said.
On the plane, passengers saw the engine completely stripped of its outer shell, according to passenger video Travis Loock.
The mood was tense, Loock told CNN, but everyone was “very calm” on board when the pilot said they would land in four minutes.
“My daughter was sitting at the window and … I was like, ‘Don’t look, let’s close up and pray’,” said passenger Brenda Dohn.
The damage trail
None of the passengers were injured. Nor do the residents around Broomfield because of the debris that has spread for a mile.
“We dispatched policemen and within minutes we were at the location of some of these houses and saw some of these large pieces of rubble,” Broomfield Police spokeswoman Rachel Welte told reporters on Saturday.
Looking at the debris field and how busy the area was, Welte said, “the fact that we are still not receiving reports of any injuries is absolutely shocking at this point.”
“This park on a day like today, when it is not as cold as last weekend, we could have hundreds of people here.”
“I’m sitting here looking at this piece of garbage standing in my garage thinking, ‘Oh my God, what the hell am I going to do now?'” Klements said of the vehicle he put so much time and money into.
“We could see that there was a giant black cloud of smoke high in the sky, immediately followed by, you know, what looked like pieces of the aircraft,” Cain told CNN. “Basically, a shower of things that were falling from the sky.”
It may take a while for community members to receive a payment from United Airlines, but most standard insurance plans should cover “objects falling from the sky,” Carole Walker of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association told KCNC.
Where the investigation goes next
The engine in question will be removed from the aircraft for further inspection, Sumwalt said.
A section of a blade will be examined on Tuesday after being transported by private jet on Monday night to a Pratt & Whitney laboratory, where investigators believe they can determine how long the blade was damaged before failing.
In the wake of the engine failure, Boeing recommended suspending the use of 777s with a Pratt & Whitney 4000 engine, and United Airlines already removed them after the incident. The FAA also issued an emergency order on Sunday, saying it would increase inspections for Boeing 777 planes equipped with certain Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines.
CNN’s Gregory Wallace, Pete Muntean, Hollie Silverman, Alta Spells, David Williams, Konstantin Toropin, Chuck Johnston, Andy Rose, Gregory Clary and Lucy Kafanov contributed to this report.