When Barbara Underwood saw the fire explode in the starboard engine of the plane during her United Airlines flight to Hawaii in Hawaii, she could only think of one thing.
“I reactivated the text messages and said goodbye to our children. Now we didn’t know what would happen. It was pretty scary, ”the Kauai woman told Hawaii News Now.
Underwood was flying with her husband from Denver to Honolulu on United Flight 328 when the terrifying incident began, she said on departure.
He was looking out the window when he noticed that the engine seemed to be shaking.
“And then, as I watched him, he just fired,” he said of the damned starboard engine.
“And that ring around him just flew and then he just smoked. And he would say to me, “Oh God, I don’t know what will happen next,” he said.
Most people on board didn’t even seem to realize what had happened, he said.
After the compromised ship returned to the airport, most people on the flight simply boarded a new United plane and continued their journey to Honolulu, United said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
Those who did not want to travel received accommodation at the hotel.
The airline said it is working with federal agencies investigating the incident.