Adam Taylor was filming his 2½-year-old daughter, Maui, as they took off on a flight from Los Angeles International Airport to Manila Thursday. It wasn’t her first flight, but it would probably be the first she would remember, he recalled in an interview with USA TODAY.
As he was making comments to Maui, “look we’re going to take off, we’re going into the sky” and “whoa, look how high we’re going,” he started to hear loud banging noises.
That’s when he saw flames spouting in bursts from the engine.
“I was filming and I started hearing bangs, misfires and backfires. The plane shook and there was a big flash of light,” he said. “It kept happening enough that I looked out the window and turned the camera around.”
In the moment, Taylor had been too focused on his daughter to pick up on the nervousness around him. Once a flight attendant started to panic though, tension began to rise. One woman, he said, passed out towards the back of the plane.
The Boeing 777 turned around and landed back at LAX, safely, albeit with a rough landing.
“I feel like everyone handled it as best they could,” he said. “The pilot did a good job of getting us down safely.”
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A Philippines Airlines 777 had to return to Los Angeles International Airport Thursday after an engine malfunction caused it to shoot flames. (Photo: NOEL CELIS, AFP/Getty Images)
Philippine Airlines confirmed in a release that Flight PR113 took off from LAX en route to Manila around 11:45 am local time and landed safely at LAX after experiencing a technical problem.
Ian Gregor, public affairs manager for the Federal Aviation Administration, said that the flight had reported a right engine problem.
“It was in the air for less than 15 minutes, it circled around and declared an emergency almost immediately after takeoff,” Heath Montgomery, spokesperson for LAX, told USA TODAY.
All 342 passengers and 18 crew members were safe and able to leave the airplane using airstairs, the airline said.
The landing was treated as a routine emergency landing, Montgomery added. There was no active fire on the aircraft when it landed and it was able to safely taxi off the runway.
“We greatly appreciate the calmness and patience of our PR113 passengers, who cooperated well with our cabin crew during the flight and the emergency landing,” Philippine Airlines said.
After deplaning, Taylor said that he stood in line for five or six hours with the rest of the passengers as they waited to get rebooked. Once he made it to the counter, it took another hour to get his new flight details worked out. They were rescheduled to fly out Friday evening from Ontario International Airport in California.
Maui, he added, was quite the trooper as they waited to sort out their travel arrangements.
Taylor said his family will pick up their luggage at LAX on Friday before continuing on their journey to Bali, where they plan to start a five-week vacation. They were prevented from doing so on Thursday because the plane was still being examined.
The FAA will work with the carrier to ensure the problem is fixed before returning to service, Gregor said.
“We’re just grateful to be on the ground safely,” Taylor said.
Follow Morgan Hines on Twitter: @MorganEmHines.
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