Cars and roofs were damaged when a number of smaller parts fell off from an engine of a Norwegian airplane after taking off from Rome airport this weekend.
The Boeing 787 aircraft that was on its way to Los Angeles on Saturday with 298 people on board had to cancel the ascent due to a problem with an engine, the website Flysmart.no reports.
Small fragments from one of the engines came loose, and 25 houses and twelve cars in the area near the Fiumicino airport sustained damage, according to the Aviation Herald and La Repubblica. A person may have also been hit by some debris, but he was not seriously harmed.
According to the Aviation Herald, glowing parts of the aircraft were littered over the Isola Sacra area, which is about two kilometers from the end of the runway at Fiumicino Airport in Rome. Photos in Italian newspapers show broken windshields and a person holding a handful of metal parts.
A Norwegian spokesman confirmed in a statement that the plane had technical problems a few minutes after departure and that it returned to the airport where it landed safely. According to the Simpleflying website, they will not comment further on the incident because the case is under investigation.
Norwegian press officer Charlotte Holmberg Jacobsson tells Flysmart that the company assists the affected passengers with hotels and rebooking.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
