United Airlines plane catches fire, aborts takeoff, passengers evacuated in latest air traffic emergency

In the latest air traffic emergency, a United Airlines plane was forced to abort a takeoff after an engine burst into flames while accelerating down an airport runway in Texas.

United Airlines flight UA1382 was departing Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Sunday and was bound for New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. The Airbus A319-100 plane was carrying 104 passengers and five crew members on board.

“We’ve had a heart-wrenching week in aviation.”

The plane began to taxi down the runway at 8:35 a.m., when passengers noticed that a fire broke out on one of the wings.

Ashlyn Sharp, a passenger on the malfunctioning plane, provided video of the fiery plane to KRIV-TV.

The video shows large flames and black smoke flowing from the wing of the plane.

Sharp told KRIV-TV, “It sounded like something flew into the engine or something. [It] scared everyone. That’s when we all looked out our window and saw the engine and the wing on fire, and we could smell the smoke inside.”

The video shows a flight crew member instructing the passengers to stay seated when someone on the plane yells, “No! It’s a fire!”

Another passenger is heard saying on the video, “Please, please get us out of here.”

The Aviation Herald reported that the Airbus A319-100 plane was traveling at a “high speed” of about 115 knots (approximately 130 mph) when the engine malfunctioned.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement, “The crew of United Airlines Flight 1382 safely aborted its takeoff from the George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport in Texas due to a reported engine issue around 8:35 a.m. local time on Sunday, Feb. 2.”

The United Airlines plane stopped on the runway, where emergency vehicles rushed to the scene to put out the fire.

The passengers were evacuated from the plane and bused to the airport terminal.

The Houston Fire Department stated it assisted in deboarding the passengers and that there were no reported injuries.

The FAA has launched an investigation into the engine malfunction.

There have been multiple air traffic emergencies in recent times.

As Blaze News reported last week, an American Eagle passenger jet collided with a Black Hawk military helicopter on Wednesday. All 62 passengers and two crew members of the doomed plane as well as the three soldiers on the Black Hawk helicopter are presumed dead.

As of Sunday, the remains of 55 of the 67 victims had been recovered and positively identified, according to John Donnelly — the chief of Washington’s fire and emergency medical services department.

The mid-air collision is the deadliest domestic plane crash in nearly 20 years.

Dive teams have been surveying the wreckage and are expected to begin to extract the aircraft out of the Potomac River on Monday.

Officials said they expect to remove all of the plane and helicopter wreckage by Feb. 12, according to the New York Times.

The Navy unit involved in recovering the wreckage was also involved in the response to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last spring, said Col. Francis Pera of the Corps of Engineers.

Two days after the collision involving the passenger plane and Black Hawk helicopter, a small plane crashed into a neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia. All six passengers on the plane as well as a person in a car are believed to have been killed in the plane crash. There were also 22 people injured in the plane crash. Five of the victims remain hospitalized, and three are reportedly in critical condition.

The Learjet 55 departed from an airport in Florida and arrived in Northeast Philadelphia around 2:15 p.m. on Friday. The jet was on the ground for a few hours before departing for the Springfield-Branson National Airport in Springfield, Missouri, around 6:06 p.m. on Friday.

GPS data revealed the medical jet climbed approximately 1,500 feet into the air before taking a slight right turn, followed by a slight left turn, and then a steep descent before the plane went into a “high-impact” crash, according to officials.

The entire flight was reportedly less than one minute.

The airplane slammed into a busy intersection near the Roosevelt Mall — an outdoor shopping plaza in Philadelphia.

According to CBS News, a small medical jet was transporting a Shriners Children’s Hospital patient, her mother, and four crew members. The girl was being treated for a “life-threatening” illness in the United States before returning to Mexico.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that six people on the plane were Mexican nationals.

The FAA is investigating the plane crash in Philadelphia.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Saturday, “We’ve had a heart-wrenching week in aviation.”

“A couple days ago, I had a chance to sit down with a few of the family members who lost loved ones in the D.C. crash. Their pain is unimaginable,” Duffy stated. “I committed transparency to them. When I know information, I’m going to share it with them, but also with the American people.”

“Up in Philadelphia, we’ve sent a team of FAA investigators in conjunction with the NTSB,” Duffy continued. “We’re not going to have answers right away. It’s going to take time. But as I get those answers, I’m going to share that with all of you.”

Duffy vowed to provide any resources from the Department of Transportation to assist Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Duffy said helicopter travel is restricted in the airspace around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump named Chris Rocheleau as acting FAA administrator to fill the position that has been unfulfilled since Inauguration Day.

Rocheleau has served the FAA for more than 20 years in multiple roles, including deputy associate administrator for aviation safety, chief of staff, deputy associate administrator for policy, international affairs and environment, executive director for international affairs, and director of national security programs, emergency operations, and investigations.

Watch the Blaze Media original documentary “Countdown to the Next Aviation Disaster,” which first debuted in November.

BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere went on a mission to discover why there have been so many “close calls” of commercial airliner collisions in recent times.

Burguiere’s investigation revealed several eyebrow-raising developments on how airports are using outdated technology, DEI practices that exclude the most qualified would-be air traffic controllers, and severely understaffed air traffic towers.

Billionaire Elon Musk shared the documentary on the X social media platform last week.