Pieces of Plane Fall Near Homes After Engine Failure

A United Airlines plane showered neighborhoods with metal debris Saturday before making an emergency landing at Denver International Airport. The crew had reported that the right engine had failed and that the plane was turning back to the airport. The Boeing 777-200 landed safely, the FAA said. In the meantime, large pieces of metal from the plane showered neighborhoods near Denver, KDVR reports, with one large chunk landing next to a house. No injuries were reported in the landing, which took place about 1:30pm, or in the neighborhoods, officials said. United said Flight 328, which was on its way to Honolulu, carried 231 passengers and 10 crew members.

A witness who lives in the Broomfield area said he was on a walk with his family when he saw the plane flying unusually low, per the AP. "I saw an explosion and then the cloud of smoke and some debris falling from it," he said. "It was just like a speck in the sky, and as I'm watching that, I'm telling my family what I just saw and then we heard the explosion." He said the plane then flew out of sight. Another witness told CNN: "We saw it go over, we heard the big explosion, we looked up, there was black smoke in the sky." Debris began falling, he said, and his family took shelter under an overhang. "It's giant metal pieces all over the place," he said. Much of the debris fell on a park that usually draws a crowd on weekends, but no one was hit, per the Denver Channel. (More engine failure stories.)