NEW YORK – An American Airlines passenger plane made a safe emergency landing Wednesday after an engine failed, sending shards of metal into housing below, aviation officials said.
The plane, a McDonnell Douglas 80, landed safely at New York’s JFK Airport on one engine, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Jim Peters told AFP. No one aboard or on the ground was injured.
“After it departed from LaGuardia Airport for Chicago earlier today, the crew reported hearing a loud noise and the number two engine shutting down,” Peters said.
The plane diverted to JFK and requested emergency response teams to be ready as a precaution.
Initially pieces of metal were thought to have shot from the stricken engine into the fuselage of the plane. However, “all the metal that was dislodged from the engine went out the rear of the engine” and plunged to the ground, Peters said.
The metal pieces “embedded themselves in a roof of a building” in New York’s Queens neighborhood, he said.
In January a US Airways plane managed to make a safe splash landing in the Hudson River after losing power in both engines due to a collision with a flock of birds.
