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HONG KONG (Reuter) - A United Airlines Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet with 357 passengers on board returned safely to Hong Kong today after experiencing engine trouble on takeoff, airport officials and witnesses said.
Initial reports from witnesses and the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) said there was a fire in one of the engines.
"I saw large flames coming out of the engine," said Chad Stather, who works in an office tower across Hong Kong harbour, opposite the airport runway and who had observed the plane's takeoff. "The fire went out very quickly afterwards."
Officials and technical personnel at Kai Tak international airport described the incident as engine trouble, not fire.
"There was no fire -- only engine failure," a maintenance engineer at the airport told Reuters. He said there was no external damage, adding that the plane would be able to fly again Thursday after the engine had been replaced.
Fire trucks and other emergency vehicles surrounded the airliner after it touched down and taxied off the runway.
Alice Chiu, in the CAD public relations department, told Reuters flight UA806 had run into problems with its No 1 engine.
Chiu said 357 passengers and 22 crew were aboard. Nobody was injured.
A United Airlines official said the jumbo was bound for San Francisco, having arrived in Hong Kong from Singapore earlier in the day. The airline said the passengers would now leave for San Francisco on another plane later Wednesday.