An Alaska Airlines flight from Portland to San Francisco emergency landed Wednesday after the right engine had a mechanical problem, officials said.
The pilot returned the Airbus A320 to Portland International Airport, where it landed about 11:45 a.m., Alaska Airlines said in a statement.
“It was terrifying,” said Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, who was aboard Flight 297 with his wife and two children on their way to visit his grandmother for Thanksgiving. “I could hear the engine torquing up and down — then a few minutes later, the captain very calmly announces that we’ve had one engine fail.”
The plane made a continuous, high-pitched revving sound as it descended from 10,000 feet, said Cunningham-Parmeter, 48, of Portland. Fire crews were waiting at the tarmac when the plane landed as a precaution, he said.
“Our pilots are among the best in the business, and they train for these types of situations,” Alaska Airlines said in its statement.
The plane is being inspected by maintenance crews, and its 150 passengers are being transferred onto different flights, the statement said.
The emergency landing comes during the busy Thanksgiving week, when up to a half-million people are expected to travel through Portland International Airport — up dramatically from about 200,000 passengers during the holiday week a year ago.
-- Catalina Gaitán; find them on Twitter @catalinagaitan_