United grounds 24 Boeing 777s after an engine failed midair and left a trail of debris
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Sinéad Baker
Feb 22, 2021, 21:57 IST
The engine of a United Airlines Boeing 777 plane on Saturday.YouTube/9News
Airlines are grounding Boeing 777 planes with certain engines after one failed soon after takeoff.
Video from a United passenger showed an engine on fire. The plane landed safely but dropped debris.
Other airlines that fly the same plane grounded them too, as recommended by Boeing.
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United Airlines is grounding 24 Boeing 777 planes after an engine failed soon after takeoff, catching fire and dropping debris over Colorado.
A video taken by a passenger on United Flight 328 from Denver to Honolulu on Saturday showed one engine on fire, and photos show debris from the plane landing in neighborhoods near the airport in Colorado.
The plane, which was carrying 231 passengers and 10 crew members, was forced to return to Denver. No injuries were reported.
United announced it would temporarily ground all 24 of its active Boeing 777 planes with the engine in question: a Pratt & Whitney PW4000-112 model.
The airline also has 28 of the planes with that engine in storage.
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You can watch video of the damaged engine here:
Other airlines that fly 777s with that engine also announced they were grounding them:
Korean Airlines said it would ground six planes that were active, though it has others in storage.
Asiana Airlines will ground its seven active planes, though it has more in storage.
Japan's aviation regulator ordered airlines to ground their active plants: 12 for Japan Airlines and 19 for All Nippon Airways.
Boeing on Sunday recommended that all of the Boeing 777 planes still being used around the world with that engine be grounded for inspection. It said 69 were in service and 59 in storage.
The head of the US Federal Aviation Administrationsaid on Sunday that he was requiring "immediate or stepped-up inspections" of the planes with that engine.
United told Insider's Kelsey Vlamis that it would work with the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board to get the planes back into service.
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CNN reported that United was the only US airline that used the Pratt & Whitney engine.
The FAA said those engines were used only on Boeing 777 planes.
Boeing said it supported the decisions by the FAA and by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau to ground the plane.
"We are working with these regulators as they take actions while these planes are on the ground and further inspections are conducted by Pratt & Whitney," it said.
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