Kieran Cain was playing basketball with his kids Saturday afternoon at an elementary school in greater Denver when he heard what sounded like a sonic boom and looked up.

“We could see there was a giant black cloud of smoke high up in the sky, immediately followed by, you know what looked like pieces of the aircraft,” Cain told CNN. “Basically a shower of things that were falling out of the sky.” Saturday, February 20th, a United Airlines flight had to make an emergency turn around to the Denver International Airport, due to a malfunctioning engine. There were 231 passengers and 10 crew members on board, and no injuries have been reported. The plane had two engines and as the plane started to make it’s trip to Honolulu, Hawaii, the right engine malfunctioned and started to rain down debris into Broomfield, Colorado. The debris primarily into a neighborhood north of Denver and it’s park, thankfully the debris very slowly came down to the ground ensuring no injuries, luckily, no debris fell on any property as well. David Gonzales, a United Airlines spokesperson, says “We are in contact with the FAA, NTSB and local law enforcement. The NTSB is investigating and has directed that any persons with debris from this event contact their local law enforcement agency. All passengers and crew have deplaned and been transported back to the terminal in DEN. We are now working to get our customers on a new flight to Honolulu in the next few hours.” According to an FAA statement, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transport Safety Board have launched an investigation for this incident. Earlier that day, a different United Airlines flight had to make an emergency stop in New Orleans, due to a mechanical problem. These incidents are very strange, but hopefully the investigations by the NSBT will help solve these mysteries. 

Sources

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/20/969797124/debris-falls-from-the-sky-near-denver-after-flight-suffers-engine-failure