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A Boeing 777 operated by United Airlines had to make an emergency landing in Denver in February after one of its engines exploded shortly after takeoff.

Passengers captured video of the destroyed engine, wobbling and still on fire, as pilots made a safe return to the airport minutes after the plane bound for Hawaii took off.

“We felt a brief shutter followed by an enormous explosion,” Pete Baranko, a long-time pilot and a passenger on board that harrowing flight told WIBC’s Mock n’ Rob Show. “A loud humming sound came after that, and I looked across at the passenger sitting in the aisle across from me and said, ‘We’re going back [to the airport].'”

Baranko, who was sitting directly in front of the disabled engine on the opposite side of the aircraft, said his fellow passengers remained relatively calm in the moments following the explosion.

“You get into that effect where time slows down a bit and people are just trying to get their bearings,” Baranko said. “But I handed my phone to the lady sitting across the aisle from me and she captured the video that a lot of people have seen on the news and online.”

Baranko told Mock n’ Rob that he went frame-by-frame as he reviewed the captured video and saw that the engine was missing at least two blades.

“So I relayed that to the flight crew, although I have no idea if that information made it to the pilots since they certainly had their hands full at the time.”

Investigators confirmed last Monday that fan blades in the Pratt & Whitney engine broke off and one of them showed signs of metal fatigue cracks from the stress of wear and tear, as reported by The Associated Press. They believe the weakened blade broke off first, then chipped off half of an adjacent blade.

Examining blades for “hairline cracks” is an established part of routine maintenance for all private and passenger planes, according to Baranko.

“So once I knew from the video what had happened, I knew we were going to be fine and I let the other passengers know that as well,” he said.

Baranko said the incident shouldn’t deter people from flying.

“The engineers are Boeing design the planes in such a way that they are equipped to handle this kind of a failure,” he said.

Click the link below to hear Mock n’ Rob’s full interview with pilot Pete Baranko.

https://omny.fm/shows/mock-rob/interview-pilot-pete-details-experience-on-plane-t