Last month, photos taken by 17-year-old plane spotter Hayden Smith of a United Airlines Boeing 777 went global. Key.Aero spoke with him about his newfound fame, what he saw and how he captured the perfect pictures
On February 20, United Airlines flight 328 took off from Denver International Airport on what should have been a routine service to Honolulu. However, after less than five minutes in the air, the right-hand Pratt & Whitney PW4000 powerplant on the Boeing 777-200 failed. Approximately 20 minutes later the aircraft was safely back on the ground.
Whilst twin-engine aircraft are designed to be able to continue flying after a failure, the prolonged fire and shedding of debris in a residential area made this incident notable. Onboard, photos and videos from passengers showed that much of the cowling had fully detached while astonishing pictures from the ground revealed the engine inlet resting against a tree in a resident’s front yard after nearly hitting a house.