United flight makes emergency landing after engine catches fire

(NewsNation) — A United flight that was supposed to go from Texas to Florida had to turn around Monday after one of the plane’s engines caught fire.

Videos taken by passengers show flames shooting out of the engine.

According to FlightAware data, the plane, a Boeing 737, was taking off from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston at 6:40 p.m, but only 33 minutes later, had to make an emergency landing.

Retired airline Captain Richard Levy said on “NewsNation Live” that his immediate analysis is that a “compressor stall” caused the incident.

“A compressor stall is basically when the airflow flowing through the engine is not flowing evenly,” Levy said.

One passenger, Elliot Trexler, told KTRK-TV the plane was nosediving, and rocking back and forth a lot. Then, another passenger, David Gruninger said, “It just turned into chaos.”

“I remember there was just this bright, flashing light that came through the window, and it sounded like a bomb went off, and then it was just a strobe of fire out the window,” David Gruninger, who was on the connecting flight home to Florida with 15 of his friends after attending a wedding in Mexico, said to KTRK.

“People were screaming and crying and trying to figure out what was going on,” Gruninger said in an interview with KTRK.

Trexler, thinking he was going to die, sent his wife an email saying zI love you, and you should feel free to move on.”

United, in a statement, said the flight landed safely, and passengers were able to deplane normally.

A new aircraft was arranged to take customers to Fort Myers, Florida.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.