A United Flight was on its way to Newark, New Jersey, when something unexpected happened. The aircraft suffered engine problems and was forced to turn back to LAX just an hour after departure. Apparently, the United plane was forced to land and evacuate its passengers after an engine burst into flame.
United Plane Forced To Land After An Engine Burst Into Flame
People Magazine shared the details surrounding the engine fire. They reported that United Flight 2127 made an emergency landing at LAX around 11:19 on Monday, March 2. Additionally, the outlet shared that there had been "256 travelers and 12 United crew members" on board at the time of the incident.
Once the engine burst into flame, the pilot skillfully conducted the emergency landing at LAX. Upon landing, all those on board were evacuated via slides and airstairs. Once they were safely off the plane, all passengers and crew were bused to the terminal. Fortunately, the outlet shared that no one was injured during the incident or deplaning process.
Footage shows the passengers sliding down the side and running away from the aircraft. All of this was happening as smoke still billowed from one of the engines. ABC7 interviewed a young woman who was on a plane near the United flight that suffered the incident. She shared that her captain told them that they could not deboard due to an emergency situation. Additionally, they were told to close their windows. She admits she thinks that instruction was to help avoid causing panic.
The Truth About Airline Safety
Despite this dramatic footage and an engine bursting into flame, air travel is still one of the safest methods of travel. The University of Nevada spoke with a pilot and airline historian to get the facts on how safe flying actually is.
With constant news articles and images of plane crashes or accidents occurring, it is only natural that people would have some fear. However professor Dan Bubb helps put those anxieties to rest. The outlet shared that despite the fear circulating in the media, "rigorous safety standards in the aviation industry have exponentially reduced the number of yearly fatalities over the last half-century."
To further drive this point home, they shared a shocking statistic. "From 2011-15, the five-year average was one accident for every 456,000 flights." Even more promising is that now "it is one for every 810,000." When you take that into account, flying is much safer than driving a car, which most of us opt to do every single day.
