A United Airlines flight leaving Houston for Rio de Janeiro reversed course Tuesday night, eventually making an emergency landing at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport after one of the plane’s engines caught fire, officials said. official
United Airlines Flight 129 landed safely after the crew reported a possible fire in the left engine around 9:20 pm local time Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. United called it “an engine issue” and said the Boeing 767 returned to Houston shortly after takeoff. The airline initially described the problem as “a mechanical issue.”
In an air traffic control audio tape obtained by CBS News on Wednesday, a Skywest pilot can be heard talking to a control tower reporting “takeoff flames ahead of us,” which the tower identified as United Flight 129. The Skywest pilot described the situation as a “left engine fire,” which rendered the engine inoperable. The United pilot then confirmed that the flight crew had declared an emergency and that the plane would return.
The flight first departed from the Houston airport at 8:52 pm on Tuesday night and landed at the same airport two hours later, at 10:50 pm, according to the tracking site FlightAware.
“The flight landed safely and passengers deplaned at the gate,” United said in a statement. The airline said it arranged for a new plane to transport passengers who were on that flight from Houston to Rio on Wednesday morning.
No one was reported hospitalized or injured in connection with the incident. The FAA said it would investigate.
CBS News has reached out to Houston fire authorities for more information.
Due to a series of recent safety incidents, including close the calls between planes on airport runways across the US, the FAA held its first safety summit in 14 years earlier this month. During the summitthat convened a panel of aviation personnel to discuss what could have caused the spate of near collisions, among other incidents, at least seven close calls have been reported this year.