When Barbara Underwood saw the fire break out of the engine on Saturday during her United Airlines flight to Hawaii, there was only one thing to think about.
“I resumed my messages and said goodbye to the children. Now I didn’t know what was going to happen. It was pretty terrifying, “the Kauai woman told Hawaii News Now.
Underwood was flying with her husband from Denver to Honolulu on United Flight 328, when the terrible incident began, she told reporters.
He was looking out the window when he noticed that the engine seemed to be shaking.
“And when I looked at it, it just caught fire,” she said of the doomed starboard engine.
“And the ring thing just flew by and then he smoked. And I thought, “God, I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” she said.
Most of the people on board didn’t even seem to realize what had happened, she said.
After the compromised boat returned to the airport, most of the people on the flight simply boarded a new United plane and continued their journey to Honolulu, United said in a statement late Saturday.
Those who did not want to travel were offered hotel accommodation.
The airline said it is working with federal agencies investigating the incident.