United Airlines has once again turned the friendly skies into a stratosphere of terror.
Just when we thought it was smooth sailing for the company, a United plane had a “terrifying” emergency landing after one of its engines blew out over the ocean on Monday!
According to Jody Genessy, one of the passengers on the Houston, Texas bound flight, the plane “about crashed in an emergency landing” after one of the engines on the Boeing 737-800 overheated not long after they departed the airport in Liberia, Costa Rica.
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The sports writer took to Twitter to recount the harrowing experience, noting the aircraft “circled over the ocean for an hour” to burn fuel before circling back to the Liberia airport.
After a trip with health coaches from Take Shape for Life, the father-of-four was traveling back home with his wife Heather when the “frightening” incident occurred. He said in his series of tweets:
One of my plane’s engines overheated over the ocean. We about crashed in an emergency landing before the pilot quickly pulled up. So scary. pic.twitter.com/qbmlQOnYRX
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) April 24, 2017
They stopped traffic into the Liberia, Costa Rica airport. Fire trucks, ambulances and emergency vehicles waited for us to land. Freaky.
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) April 24, 2017
We circled over the ocean for an hour to burn fuel before landing. I fly a lot. This was the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced.
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) April 24, 2017
The pilot was flying us in to land with one engine (he didn’t tell us this). Just as we were about to touch, a wind sheer hit the plane.
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) April 24, 2017
The wing about hit the runway after being hit by the wind sheer. The pilot corrected it and we almost went sideways. He then pulled us up.
— Jody Genessy (@DJJazzyJody) April 25, 2017
Sounds terrifying — especially coming from an experienced flyer!
United Airlines, however, seemingly downplayed the incident in a statement, calling the engine blow-out a “maintenance issue.” The company told People:
“Flight 1516, traveling from Liberia, Costa Rica to Houston, returned to Liberia due to a maintenance issue. The plane landed safely and a new aircraft is being sent to take customers to Houston tomorrow. We apologize to all customers on board for their experience and will be providing compensation for the inconvenience.”
Seeing as the airline is dealing with much bigger PR messes at the moment — say, lawsuits from beaten passengers — we aren’t surprised by their rote response.
It should be noted that modern twin-engine jets can fly for hundreds of miles on one engine, as per required by the FAA if the jet conducts over-the-ocean flights.
Still, that doesn’t make an engine blow-out seem any less life-threatening in the eyes of the passengers. Watch Genessy’s post-flight account of what went down on the plane (below).
[Image via Jody Genessy/Twitter.]
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