Passengers on board a plane faced the falling apart of its starboard engine cover flying off with exemplary courage.
All 373 passengers on board the United Airlines flight were collectively calm as the outer casing of the Boeing 777 engine fell apart midair and everything shook around them.
The accident happened over the Pacific Ocean 35 minutes before the flight was scheduled to land in Honolulu.
A passenger made a joke of the incident on Twitter even as death stared at him.
A media report described a technical engineer named Jeff Carter looking calm as he pulled out his phone and turned it toward his own face. He panned the camera to show that every man and woman behind him wore the same serene expression.
A statement from United Airlines said the flight landed safely at 12:38 pm local time. "United flight 1175 traveling to Honolulu from San Francisco landed safely after the pilots called for an emergency landing because of an issue with the #2 engine. Our pilots followed all necessary protocols to safely land the aircraft.
An investigation has been launched by the Federal Aviation Administration.