United 777 Pilots Calmly Landed Jet After Catastrophic Engine Failure

United Airlines flight 328 took off this afternoon for Denver bound for Honolulu with 231 passengers and crew onboard. Shortly after takeoff, the right #2 engine failed. It showered debris over Broomfield, Colorado.

Video taken from inside the jet showed the right engine missing its cowling and engine cover. Flames were visible in the video. The jet safely landed a few minutes later. No injuries were reported. News reports showed that the cowling landed in a front yard with engine debris spread over a wide area.

The aircraft involved was N772UA. This particular 777-200 was the 5th Boeing 777 off the production line back in 1995. It entered service in September of 1995 just months after United introduced the two-engined long haul jet into the fleet.

Below are relevant tweets with photos posted to twitter along with an ATC recording of the incident.

Below is the recording of flight 328’s departure and emergency return recorded by LiveATC.net and visualized by VASA Aviation on Youtube. You’ll note in the video that the pilots were tremendously calm throughout the emergency.

We’ll keep this story updated as we learn more.

Not the first United 777 uncontained engine incident

A similar but unrelated incident to another United Airlines 777-200 occurred back in 2018. That incident occurred over the Pacific Ocean in cruise. The #2 engine failed as well. The cause was determined to be metal fatigue on a fan blade. The aircraft landed safely at Honolulu International Airport with no injuries as well.