‘People are screaming.’ Flames shoot from engine on L.A.-bound airliner, video shows

A Los Angeles-bound plane returned to a New Jersey airport Wednesday night after a passenger’s video captured flames shooting from an engine, NorthJersey.com reports.

“Most terrifying experience of my life,” passenger Nicole Adamo wrote on Twitter. “Flight takes off, Right wing of the plane (where I’m sitting in the aisle seat) sparking & now one engine failed.”

“They’re making announcements but I can’t hear anything because people are screaming,” Adamo continued. She later wrote on Twitter that the plane had turned around and “people (are) still flipping out.”

Another passenger, Gabrielle Guzy, posted video of flames shooting from the engine to Twitter.

“I didn’t know what was happening,” Guzy said, WABC reported. “My sister said she thought it was lights but I knew it was fire from the engine. I kept reassuring myself we’d be okay because we had only been in the air for a minute.”

A United Airlines spokeswoman says Flight 1871, which took off at 7 p.m., returned safely to Newark Liberty International Airport because of a mechanical problem, NorthJersey.com reported.

“The flight landed safely and passengers deplaned normally,” said Kimberly Gibbs, according to the publication. Passengers were rescheduled for a later flight.

“Pray for my anxiety because my stomach just went back in knots. Anyways.. let’s try this again,” Adamo wrote on Twitter as she boarded the new flight. She later posted that she’d made it safely to Los Angeles.

This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 10:29 AM.