Longtime Broomfield residents had never seen the sites they witnessed on Saturday after plane wreckage landed on their lawns and damaged their properties.
A Boeing 777 bound for Hawaii was forced to make an emergency landing on Saturday, spitting parts in the Northmoor neighborhood.
“Were we under attack?”
That’s what Mary Ellen Sucato thought when she heard loud bangs. The 81-year-old lady was upstairs while airplane parts rained down in her neighborhood. She was able to laugh at that when she realized what had happened. Across the street from his home on Elmwood Street was a 20-foot circular object that was in front of Kirby Klements’s door.
“At first, I thought it was part of a UFO,” said Sucato.
Klements was with his wife inside his house when he heard a loud bang. The couple looked at each other, trying to find out what happened, he said. Outside, the “UFO” had fallen outside its window. Klements’ truck also suffered damage.
“First, I thought it was the wreckage of a trampoline in my neighbor’s yard,” he said. “He went out and knew at the time that he was in front of an airplane engine.
“There was a lot of debris raining down from the sky.”
Kirby Klements of Broomfield describes his Saturday when the wreckage of a jet landed in his backyard. pic.twitter.com/XsQ223Isol
– kieran nicholson (@kierannicholson) February 20, 2021
Emergency teams, including police, ambulances and fire teams, quickly arrived in the neighborhood at around 1 pm. Sirens and lights replaced the ramps, Sucato said, and “people were running everywhere.”
Hundreds of people converged on Northmoor, where debris fell near East 13th Avenue and Elmwood Avenue. Parts scattered throughout the area, as well as spectators.
A woman driving in the area with the window open shouted at the crowd: “Did an airplane catch on fire? This is wild! ” she said.
Sucato said that in the nearly 50 years she lived on Elmwood Avenue, she had never seen anything like this before.
“It rocked the house a little”
Elsewhere in Northmoor, Cindy and John Basile reacted differently when the commercial jet hovered over their home.
“I heard a loud bang and it shook the house a little,” said John Basile in describing his experience. He initially thought that someone’s water heater had exploded. However, he also remembers hearing a plane flying overhead.
“But I didn’t put two and two together,” he said.
Cindy Basile, however, immediately sought out John inside his home to make sure he was okay. The couple left home to find the neighborhood full of plane wreckage.
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
Parts of airplanes spread across an entire football field at Broomfield Commons Park on February 20, 2021. A United 777 plane had an engine failure above and parts scattered throughout the nearby neighborhood and Broomfield Commons Park.
“Absolutely lucky”
Police sergeant from Broomfield. Todd Dahlbach said Saturday night that there were no reports of injuries related to the wreckage. Two houses were damaged, as well as several vehicles.
“We are very lucky that no one was hurt,” said Dahlbach.
On a normal Saturday, Commons Park would be full of families enjoying outdoor activities, especially on an exceptionally mild February day. Instead, the park was filled with aircraft parts. Some pieces were up to 90 cm long.
The National Transportation Safety Board was in Broomfield at 5 pm to investigate the incident.
Any resident who believes he has plane wreckage on his property can call the Broomfield police at 303-438-6400. Residents who have suffered material damage can monitor the police and social media in the city of Broomfield for help with their future claims.