(Bloomberg) -- A New Jersey-bound United Airlines flight made an emergency landing shortly after takeoff Wednesday in Fort Myers, Florida, due to a problem with one of the engines.
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One passenger who posted about the incident on Twitter described the incident as an “engine explosion.”
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Key Insights
- The Airbus A320 with 79 passengers and five crew members returned to Southwest Florida International Airport at 12:58 p.m. ET, 46 minutes after departure for Newark, New Jersey, according to tracking service FlightAware.
- The United A320 has two IAE V2500 turbofan engines, not the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofans that have caused operational problems on some Airbus A320neo aircraft for other airlines.
- The incident was a “mechanical issue with the engine” and maintenance crews are inspecting the Airbus, said Charles Hobart, a spokesman for United Continental Holdings Inc.
- It wasn’t immediately clear if the engine failed or if the pilots shut it off due to a mechanical problem, Hobart said.
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