United Airlines Flight Engine Catches Fire Mid-Air, Plane Returns To Airport [Video]

A United Airlines flight from Honolulu to Majuro, Marshall Islands, was diverted back to the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Hawaii, after it faced some issue with one of its engines Sunday.

The incident occurred shortly after Flight 132 took off from the airport at 7:37 a.m. HST (1:37 p.m. EDT) with 142 passengers on board. Travelers were supposed to fly five hours over open waters to their destination. An airline spokesperson told Fox/CW-affiliated Khon2 the flight experienced a mechanical issue with one of the engines a little while after taking off and as a result, returned to the airport. The statement did not go into details about the issue faced by the plane’s engine.

The plane landed safely and all the passengers on board were met by emergency crews. There were no injuries reported.

Passenger Josh Ley, who was sitting in a window seat behind the left wing, witnessed the incident and also recorded a video of flames shooting out of the wing. The video was obtained by the local news station.

"Had fire and smoke coming out the back for like a few seconds, like two spurs of fire," Ley said. "Then next thing you know we were staying at the same elevation, circling around for almost an hour before we landed again. It was about an hour of just trying to figure out what's going on.”

He added that the pilot announced that that one of the compressors of the engine had failed. After making the emergency landing, the plane was evaluated and the decision to decommission it was taken by the company. "They checked out the plane to make sure that we were safe to arrive at the gate. They had to cool down the breaks," Ley said. "They gave us the go-ahead to come back to the gate. We waited at the gate for a little while. Finally, we got the notice that our flight was canceled."

While some passengers were rebooked on the next flight out, others were told they might need to wait until the end of the week to get to Majuro. "They set me up at a hotel with taxi and food vouchers. They rescheduled me for Friday," Ley said.

The flight-tracking website FlightStats confirmed that United Airlines flight 132 was diverted back to Honolulu. An alternate plane, carrying some of the passengers of the canceled flight, reached the Amata Kabua International Airport, Majuro, at 9:37 a.m. local time Monday (5:37 p.m. EDT, Sunday).