Jet Has Emergency Landing In Portland Engine On Fire On Takeoff

A United Airlines jetliner made an emergency landing at Portland International Airport on Friday after an engine failed on takeoff.

A passenger on the Boeing 737-300 reported seeing flames coming from the right-side engine shortly after the plane took off at 6:03 a.m., headed for San Francisco. About an hour later, pilot Kate Harter received clearance to turn around and head back to Portland.

With its No. 2 engine out of commission, United Flight 2933 touched down safely about 7:15 a.m. None of the 110 passengers and five crew members on board was injured, but several were shaken by the ordeal.

“I was very scared,” said Keith McKee, a 14-year-old West Linn High School student on his way to a skateboard camp. “It started shaking, and the flight attendants looked all scared.”

United Airlines spokeswoman Kristina Price said crews on the runway heard a loud bang as the plane left the runway, followed by a popping noise, leading crews to suspect the plane had blown a tire. But no damage to any of the plane’s tires was found.

Officials then thought a bird might have been sucked into the engine, but mechanics later ruled out that possibility, said Port of Portland spokesman Darrel Buttice.

“It had characteristics of a bird strike,” Buttice said. “But upon further review, our operations people tell us it’s a hydraulic problem in the right engine.”

Port officials and United Airlines said the immediate cause of the engine stall wasn’t known.

The crew felt the plane vibrate at about 19,000 feet, and Harter cut back power to the No. 2 engine, Price said.

The airplane dumped fuel before going back to the airport, a standard procedure when an airplane has to make a premature return.

One unidentified passenger said he saw 6-foot-long flames coming from the engine. But Price said there was no fire, at most a spark when the engine had a compressor stall, in which the blades inside the engine stopped turning.

Passengers said they were instructed to lower their heads and assume the “crash position” before the flight landed, and that they cheered once the plane was safely on the ground.

“Everybody had their heads down, so it was a long 20 or 30 minutes of waiting to find out whether you were going to be around or not,” said passenger Dan Nelson.

Another passenger, Jonathan Seutter, said nobody screamed, but the tension was palpable inside the cabin.

“People were starting to get nervous,” he said. “It’s not just like some turbulence.”