United Airlines flight makes emergency landing when engine catches fire

PA

Yesterday evening a United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing at New Jersey's Newark airport after a fire broke out on the engine soon after take off.

The Daily Mail reports that the Boeing 757, which was bound for Berlin, took off just after 5.50pm.

Witnesses said that they saw flames coming from the aircraft at about 6.30pm, but the plane was forced to circle over New Jersey for almost two hours to burn off fuel before landing.

It landed safely at 8.05pm, and the blaze was quickly extinguished. No passengers were injured.

The Federal Aviation Administration and United Airlines said that they were investigation what caused the fire.

United Airlines blamed a 'mechanical failure' but FBI spokesman Barbara Woodruff told CNN that a tyre blew out during takeoff and flew in the left engine, causing the fire.

A United spokesperson said: "The crew followed standard procedures in returning to Newark, where the airplane landed safely."

Click on the image below to see if you can guess the airline cabin crew...

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