A United Airlines flight that lost power in one of its engines shortly after takeoff from Dulles International Airport landed safety back at the airport after circling for just under an hour.
Flight 803 departed Dulles bound for Tokyo’s Haneda Airport around 12:35 p.m. United said there were 275 passengers and eight crew members aboard the Boeing 777-200 jet. The carrier said the plane returned safely to Dulles, with no injuries reported.
The engine problem ignited a small brush fire near the runway, according to Emily McGee, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which manages the airport. The fire was extinguished, and the plane was evaluated by airport fire officials after it returned to the airport.
The smoke from the brush fire was visible across the tarmac as other flights were coming in and out of the airport.
Houman David Hemmati, a California-based ophthalmologist, was settling into his seat on a Los Angeles-bound flight Saturday afternoon when the pilot’s voice rang through the plane’s cabin.
“We are on a ground stop,” the pilot told passengers, Hemmati said. “There’s an incident on the runway.”
When Hemmati looked out his window across the tarmac, he said, he saw a wall of smoke punctuated by the flashing lights of emergency vehicles.
He snapped a few photos with his phone and then sent out a message on X: “Praying it’s not a crash,” he wrote.
Hemmati’s flight was diverted to another runway and allowed to take off around 1 p.m. As his flight climbed into the sky, he said, he saw smoke still hanging in the air.
“United is grateful to our crews and to the teams at Washington Dulles for their quick work to help ensure the safety of everyone involved,” the carrier said in a statement, adding that it is working to rebook passengers on a flight later Saturday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating the incident.
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