A Boeing plane's engine covering came loose and struck the plane's wing flap as Southwest Airlines Flight 3695, bound for Houston, took off from Denver International Airport on Sunday morning, officials reported.
Following the incident, the aircraft safely returned to the airport around 8:15 a.m. local time, and the Boeing 737-800 was towed to the gate, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The flight was en route to Houston's William P. Hobby Airport.
Recordings from air traffic control captured the moment. "Let's go ahead and declare an emergency for Southwest 3695, and we'd like an immediate return," an air traffic control official could be heard saying. "We've got a piece of the engine cowling hanging off apparently."
The passengers are being accommodated on another aircraft and are expected to arrive in Houston about three hours later than scheduled, a Southwest spokesperson stated. More than 130 passengers were onboard the flight.
Southwest Airlines' maintenance team is currently inspecting the aircraft, and the FAA will conduct its own investigation, officials confirmed.
According to FAA records, the plane was delivered in 2015, and the engine was manufactured by CFM.
As of June 30, 2023, Southwest Airlines had over 200 737-800 planes in its fleet, with an average fleet age of approximately 12 years.
Boeing has faced scrutiny in recent months, including an incident in January when a door panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max 9 jet during an Alaska Airlines flight.
In response, the Federal Aviation Administration announced in February that it would increase inspections of Boeing aircraft. A subsequent report by the agency highlighted a "lack of awareness of safety-related metrics" at all levels of Boeing, with employees struggling to distinguish between various measuring methods.
In other incidents, passengers on a Boeing 757-200 in February reported seeing a wing coming apart, a United Airlines Boeing 777 lost a tire shortly after takeoff from San Francisco International Airport in March, and a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Paris was diverted to Denver last month due to an engine issue.
