Federal investigators and engineers from Boeing and Delta Air Lines are trying to determine why a jet engine fell from the wing of a 737-200 just after takeoff. The plane landed safely afterward.
"It was really wild," said passenger Derald Walker of McKinney, one of 44 people aboard Delta Flight 1581 from Dallas-Fort Worth to Houston on Tuesday afternoon."Did you see what I just saw?" Walker asked the man sitting next to him. When the man said it was just the wheels going up, Walker told him, "Partner, the engine just fell off the plane!"
The plane landed safely 10 minutes after dropping the engine near the end of a runway at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. It was the third time such an incident has happened to a Boeing 737 in the past five years.
"It can fly on one engine if necessary," a Delta spokesman said.