United Airlines flight makes emergency landing due to engine failure

Gray smoke from an airplane

The plane had to return to Dulles International Airport due to an engine failure. (Houman David Hemmati via X)

Want to see more of NewsNation? Get 24/7 fact-based news coverage with the NewsNation app or add NewsNation as a preferred source on Google!

(NewsNation) — A United Airlines flight that was experiencing an engine failure during takeoff from Dulles International Airport had to return for an emergency landing, an airport spokesperson said.

United flight 803 was bound for Tokyo when the engine lost power on Saturday afternoon, according to a spokesperson from United Airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane, a Boeing 777-200, safely returned to the airport around 1:20 p.m.

The airline said there were 275 passengers and 15 crew members on board at the time. No one was injured.

“We’ve temporarily closed a United Club lounge at Dulles to help assist our customers and work to get them to their destinations,” the spokesperson told NewsNation.

United said it was scheduling a different aircraft to continue the flight to Japan for later Saturday. The FAA is investigating the incident.

Travel

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20260112181412