Boeing 777 lands safely in Colorado after engine failure rains debris on suburb

A Boeing 777 bound from Denver to Honolulu landed safely Saturday after an engine failure caused it to turn back shortly after takeoff, a United Airlines spokesperson said.

There were no reported injuries, spokesperson David Gonzalez said, and 231 passengers and 10 crew were on board.

The flight took off from Denver shortly after 1 p.m. MST Saturday, before circling back and landing less than half an hour later.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Passenger videos shared to social media show the jet’s number two engine missing its outer shell, with flames visible within.

Other posts on social media showed debris from the jet falling on the Denver suburb of Broomfield — a massive circular piece of the engine, largely in tact, just feet in front of someone’s front door, and smaller debris scattered across a turf play field. The Broomfield Police Department wrote that it had received no reports of injuries on the ground.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to investigate the incident.

“All passengers and crew have deplaned and been transported back to the terminal in DEN,” Gonzalez said Saturday afternoon. “We are now working to get our customers on a new flight to Honolulu in the next few hours.”

Tyler Thal, who lives in the area, told The Associated Press that he was out for a walk with his family when he noticed a large commercial plane flying unusually low and took out his phone to film it.

“While I was looking at it, I saw an explosion and then the cloud of smoke and some debris falling from it. 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 in a phone interview. “The plane just kind of continued on and we didn’t see it after that.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.