Engine cover rips off Southwest Airlines jet bound for Houston, forcing the flight to return to Denver

HOUSTON – A Southwest Airlines flight headed to Houston was forced to make an emergency landing after an engine cover was torn off the airplane causing damage to part of the wing.

Southwest Airlines flight 3695 took off from Denver International Airport took off around 7:39 MDT, according to data from FlightAware. Roughly 33 minutes later, the Boeing 737-800 airplane made an emergency landing after a part called an “engine cowling” came loose and damaged the flaps on the right side of the airplane.

“All right, let’s go ahead and declare an emergency for Southwest 3695/ And we’d like an immediate return,” the pilot said in air traffic control recordings obtained by KPRC 2. “We got a piece of the engine cowling hanging off, apparently.”

Passengers aboard the plane say they didn’t hear or feel anything, but the word quickly spread around the jet that something happened outside.

“I thought I saw a flash of a shadow. It was when we were lifting off,” said passenger Frank Sanger. “It was a split second, so I didn’t know what was going on.”

“We didn’t hear anything. We didn’t feel anything,” Alisa Moses added.

Photos from those sitting on the right side of the airplane quickly spread throughout the cabin. However, passengers say everyone stayed calm and the pictures look worse than what it really was.

“The pictures make it look worse than what it is,” Mike Wagner said. “The landing here was harder than the landing in Denver really.”

“They coordinated all the emergency people. The people on the ground. The people in the flight deck did it a terrific job,” Sanger added. “When the captain came out to explain what had happened, the passengers gave him a round of applause.”

Passengers were met on the runway by emergency responders who helped get the plane to the gate. After a short wait, passengers say they got on another plane to fly to Houston.

That flight landed shortly at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

“It was a little spicy, but we’re okay,” Molly Vickers said.

Southwest Airlines tells KPRC 2 that their maintenance team is reviewing the airplane in Denver.

The FAA is now investigating how this happened.