Engine Problem Forces Plane To Return To KCI

A United Airlines flight from Kansas City to Denver was forced to turn back soon after takeoff Sunday with engine problems.

United flight 505 left Kansas City International Airport around 7 p.m., but had to turn back and land about a half-hour later.

A United representative told KMBC that the warning light came on about 10 minutes into the flight.

United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said the captain shut down the engine after a "check compressor" light came on. Urbanski said turning off the engine caused a loud noise, but there was no emergency.

The loud noise scared passengers on the plane, however.

"We heard a boom, and then we felt a very big vibration to the whole plane," passenger Bill Kiltoff told KMBC's Marcus Moore.

Kiltoff said he looked out the window and saw flames coming from one of the engines.

"There were some people crying and praying, and the young lady next to me -- she was real shaken," Kiltoff said.

A United representative said there was never a fire on the plane, and that what passengers saw was a backfire when the pilot turned off the engine.

The representative said engineers will go over the plane to see exactly what went wrong, but initial evidence suggests the plane may have suffered a compressor failure, which can cause the engine to run improperly.

"Every aircraft is designed to be able to fly on one engine, and they can do that very safely," airplane mechanic Gordon Clark said.

Clark, who has been a mechanic for 20 years, said jet engines are complex and fragile.

"The biggest thing we fight in the airline industry is foreign objects getting sucked into the engine," Clark said.

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