Southwest Airlines Flight 307, bound for Cancún from Houston, was forced to divert after an engine caught fire shortly after takeoff on Tuesday. Passengers aboard the flight and onlookers from the ground recorded the incident.
The incident
WN307 took off from Houston’s Hobby Airport on August 15th at around 7:49 PM local time. It’s not clear exactly when the engine caught fire but, around 8 minutes later, the plane turned north back towards the airport and touched down at 8:05 PM.
Southwest confirmed that the plane landed without issue and was promptly “taken out of service for review.” In their statement, the airline further informed that passengers were accommodated on a different aircraft, which continued the journey to Cancún later that evening.
Thankfully, no injuries were reported among the passengers or crew onboard.
The videos
Multiple videos have made rounds on social media platforms showing the event. One such video shot by a passenger onboard shows flames periodically sputtering out the engine.
Another video from the ground captures Flight 307’s engine in flames.
Jordan Kleinecke, one of the individuals aboard the flight, shared his account with ABC News: “We felt like a little air pocket going up, and then I heard the boom. And then you start smelling the fuel and everything going on.”
