Passengers on United plane whose engine caught fire prepare to start legal proceedings

‘Imagine as a passenger looking out the window of a plane and helplessly watching the engine on fire. The terror you experience lasts a lifetime,’ says Clifford Law Offices

Several passengers onboard a plane where the engine caught fire have hired lawyers after claiming to suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.

United Airlines flight 328 was flying from Denver to Hawaii on 20 February when part of the right engine broke up in flight, showering debris on a suburb of the Colorado capital.

Pilots of the Boeing 777 aircraft were forced to turn back to Denver, where the plane landed safely 24 minutes later.

In released audio of the mayday call between air traffic control and the United Airlines flight crew, one pilot was heard saying the plane “just experienced a heavy engine failure” and needed “to return immediately” to the Denver airport.

Video shared on social media shows the engine in flames.

The US’ Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) subsequently grounded all Boeing 777s with that specific type of Pratt & Whitney engine.

Several passengers onboard the flight have hired Clifford Law Offices, an aviation lawyer in Chicago, after suffering “severe post-traumatic stress disorder”, the legal firm said in a statement.

“The passengers on this flight thought it was going to be their last,” said Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner at Clifford Law Offices.

“Imagine as a passenger looking out the window of a plane and helplessly watching the engine on fire. The terror you experience lasts a lifetime.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.

Clifford Law Offices is also representing families of 72 victims killed onboard the Boeing 737 Max disaster in Ethiopia in 2019.