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Airline Debris Fall On Denver Neighborhoods After Takeoff; Former VP Pence's Chief Of Staff Marc Short On Riot, Election & Biden's First Month In Office; NTSB Investigating "Engine Event" Of United Flight Near Denver. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 20, 2021 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[18:00:14]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday and we have breaking news out of Colorado.

Take a look at your screen. You're looking at jaw dropping images of huge pieces of airplane debris that rained down onto neighborhoods right outside of Denver this afternoon.

And we now know that a United Airlines flight headed to Honolulu from Denver International Airport experienced an engine failure and had to turn around for an emergency landing.

The Boeing 777 landed safely and there were no injuries on board miraculously, and no known injuries on the ground.

Those pieces of huge metal debris falling from the sky in Broomfield, Colorado, about 20 miles north of Denver and 30 miles west of the airport. Clearly, a very scary situation there.

And we now have audio of the very moment a United Airlines pilot issued a mayday call to Denver Air Traffic Control as his plane experienced engine failure. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

PLANE: Mayday, Mayday United Air28. Three-twenty-eight heavy Mayday Mayday aircraft.

DENVER AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Three-twenty-eight Heavy say again please, repeat all that again.

PLANE: Denver departure, United 328 Heavy Mayday aircraft just experienced engine failure. Need to turn immediately.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean joins me now. Pete, wow, that pilot was so calm on that mayday call. You're a pilot yourself. What does that call tell you about the situation? What do you think was going through the pilot's mind right there.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Calm, cool, collected, but they had to deal with something that has honestly not happened very often in aviation, an uncontained engine failure of this jet engine, where essentially it blew it apart according to folks on the ground.

We heard from them that they heard a loud boom, and then you're seeing these images of these parts in people's yards. The one right there that looks to me like the front of the engine cowling or the engine cell.

Now, the F.A.A. has told us that this was in the right engine of this Boeing 777, and now, the real hard works begins of having to sift through literally all of these pieces to try and piece this back together to figure out exactly what happened.

But you know, 231 people on board, 10 crew, and hats off to them because they did a stellar job here of not only having to figure out the problem, and work through it, strategize through it. But keeping the airplane under control, a twin engine airplane, like the 777 here is not particularly easy to fly.

One, you've lost one of the engines. There is one under each wing, and so when you lose one of them, when it's no longer producing power, no longer producing thrust, it's essentially like a big boat anchor that you've thrown out the other side. You've lost half of the available power for the airplane, it makes it much harder to climb and it only got up to about 13,000 feet, which is about a quarter of a normal cruising altitude, and it makes it much, much harder to maneuver and turn.

So they requested that immediate turn. You heard in that ATC audio back to the airport, and we have seen images and heard audio of an applauding cabin of 231 passengers who could not be more grateful to be on the ground after the crew decided they needed to get on the ground right now.

BROWN: Right, and many of the videos and images were getting in are from the passengers who were showing the engine on fire. Tell us a little bit more about what we're seeing in these images of debris and how unusual it is for an engine to not only fail, but also for parts to fall to the ground like this?

MUNTEAN: Very, very rare, and it speaks to this force of this boom that we have heard reported. You're seeing materials that are very fortified and very strong.

Carbon fiber composite, Kevlar, aluminum. There's a lot happening inside a turbojet engine all at once. Not only is it incredibly high heat, but things are moving very, very fast. So for this to happen, it can also cause a lot more damage as sort of the emergency kind of wears on.

So the crew needs to happen -- the crew needs to react almost in an instant, not only do they have to overcome their startle factor of the fact that they have to realize what has just happened, but they also have to work through a procedure that they've drilled for over and over again, to shut the engine down, shut off fuel to make sure that it's not a risk that it doesn't continue burning.

And then also fly the airplane, but these pieces that we're seeing are going to be so key to this investigation. We know the N.T.S.B. is flying out of the scene, something they have not done a lot in the pandemic. They're going to be looking particularly at these pieces and talking to Pratt & Whitney, the engine manufacturer to try and figure out exactly what went wrong here.

[18:05:00]

BROWN: All right, Pete, stay with us. On the phone with me right now, we have Rachel Welte. She is a spokeswoman for the Police Department in Broomfield, Colorado where those massive airplane pieces hit the ground.

Rachel, thanks for coming on. If you would, just tell us what is happening on the ground? And most importantly, was anybody hurt at all?

RACHEL WELTE, SPOKESWOMAN, POLICE DEPARTMENT IN BROOMFIELD, COLORADO (via phone): Thanks so much, Pamela, for having me on. Remarkably, we have no reports at this time of any injuries, and after seeing those pictures taken, which really spans about a mile across Broomfield at this point that we're really looking at, it is absolutely amazing that nobody was injured.

We started to get the first reports of the debris and the loud explosions about 1:08 Mountain Time. And shortly thereafter, our police officers reported finding the debris in several people's yards across Broomfield and we are getting reports that there's damage to homes and vehicles, but no injuries reported at this time.

BROWN: That's really, really remarkable. I'm just curious what those first calls were like, what did people make of these big pieces of metal flying from the sky? I mean, what were those -- what did they say in the calls?

WELTE: Right, so shock. We were hearing people saying a plane is falling from the sky. A lot of the pictures you're seeing is of our park at Commons Park in Broomfield. It's a huge area with a dog park, playgrounds.

We have tons of people on any given weekend in this park. And a lot of families were out enjoying the nicer weather because it is in the 50s today in Colorado. And that's when they started to see this debris falling from the sky.

They called 911 and said, "I think a plane is falling from the sky," and they saw what appeared to be some black smoke and heard an explosion.

So a lot of people very frightened and the calls were coming in very frantically. BROWN: Understandably. So just how big is the area that these parts

are spread across? And how are the police officers are handling all of this evidence now?

WELTE: Right. So it's a very massive area. It is Commons Park which stretches anywhere from about a quarter of a mile to a half mile and then two additional neighborhoods.

So we consider this a massive field or a massive area investigation field. It's the Northmoor and the Red Leaf neighborhoods as well. And the biggest pieces of the plane were actually just adjacent to Commons Park in the Northmoor neighborhood. Those were the photos you were seeing on social media initially of these giant pieces of plane in people's front yard.

So we're looking at anywhere from a mile to a mile and a half of debris. Right now, our police officers are securing the areas. We're asking people to please tell us, call us at 303-438-6400 that is our number for dispatch or 911. Tell us if you have debris in your yard, in your home, because we do not want you to touch it. The N.T.S.B. is coming out. They want everything to remain intact.

So we're doing our best to secure the area and keep it intact for the N.T.S.B. who is en route at this time.

BROWN: And have you been in touch with the N.T.S.B.?

WELTE: I personally have not, but our Police Department has and they dispatched a group to come to the area about an hour and a half, two hours ago. I did see that their newsroom put some information out not too long ago, but they're on their way.

BROWN: Okay, Rachel Welte of Broomfield, Colorado Police Department. I imagine this was not how you expected to spend your Saturday, but thankfully, no one was injured. I mean, really remarkably. Thank you so much, Rachel.

WELTE: Thank you.

BROWN: Well, I want to bring in CNN analyst and former Inspector General at the Transportation Department, Mary Schiavo and CNN aviation analyst, Miles O'Brien and our CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean.

Mary, let's start with you. This looks like it could have been catastrophic. So far though, no injuries have been reported on the ground and we know that everyone on the plane is safe. What does that tell you?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, there's a small amount of luck, of course, but it also might goes to the training and skill of the pilots, also the Air Traffic Control helped them get back to the airport, but I've worked out accidents like this in the past and the debris from the uncontained engine failure, literally the engine exploding, if you will, in layman's terms could have pierced the cabin and injured people on board. It could have disastrously pierced the fuel tank. In one accident a

number of years ago, it cut the hydraulic lines, the shrapnel, as the engine came apart.

So we're very fortunate, but also of course, training and everyone knew how to respond, both in the plane and of course at Air Traffic Control.

But to put this in perspective, the ring that you see is big enough that when it's on the aircraft, someone can stand in that and that's just a little tiny part of the plane.

So the fact that in addition, not anyone on the plane was hurt, but no one on the ground was hurt. There was a large amount of metal and shrapnel falling and to put it into perspective, that huge silver ring is just that tiny little piece. And so you've got all the other parts of metal so we had literally a rain shower of metal coming from this engine cowling and that's, you know, remarkable the no one on the ground was hurt.

[18:10:16]

BROWN: Yes, you have to wonder, Miles, who was in more danger? The 241 passengers on the plane or the residents on the ground.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, that's a tough call. You don't want to be on the downside of falling pieces of aluminum from an aircraft at about 13,000 feet for sure.

But it is highly risky potentially on board those aircraft because of that flying shrapnel. Now aircraft are designed with all of this in mind, the aircraft engines have to be able to demonstrate in the process of their design and build that they can handle this uncontained failure and hold in the shrapnel.

You might remember famously though, in April of 2018, a Southwest Airlines 737, at altitude, had an uncontained failure. One of the pieces of shrapnel broke through a window and sucked a woman out through the window killing her. That's unusual to have somebody get hurt in those circumstances, but these uncontained failures are a little more common than you might imagine.

One just happened this morning in the Netherlands. There was one in December on a 777 domestic flight, similar kind of scenario.

A year ago, January, a Boeing 777 on its way to China from Los Angeles had a similar instance, turned back around to the airport and then dumped fuel over several neighborhoods in the southern -- or eastern part of Los Angeles.

So these things happen, and they require the crew to be very timely in their response. But as you heard, they were cool, well-trained and brought the aircraft back without any injuries, which is the good part of this story.

BROWN: And of course, investigators now, the challenge for them is to figure out what happened? Was this an issue with the engine, which has a separate manufacturer from Boeing, which created the aircraft if I'm not mistaken, Pete, and what do these parts tell you about what may have happened to this engine as we try to piece this all together?

MUNTEAN: It's so interesting to look at these images because you're literally seeing images that the investigators will look at, and they will gather up all of these parts and essentially be able to piece back together where this failure happened with a lot of precision.

They will be trying to go through and collect all of this. It sort of underscores why the Broomfield Police is telling folks do not touch this because now this is forensic evidence that will enable investigators and the entire aviation industry to get better, to make sure something like this doesn't possibly happen again.

You know, these things as Miles noted, do happen. But it is relatively rare on the grand scheme of aviation, you know, commercial flying is incredibly safe right now. And one of the last fatalities in a U.S. carrier was that Southwest flight back in 2018 that Miles mentioned earlier.

But this is going to be especially tricky for investigators. They will not only have to speak to Boeing, the manufacturer of the airplane, but Pratt & Whitney, the manufacturer of the engine, but this engine is so reliable that it has been approved by the F.A.A. and other aviation authorities around the world that the 777 can essentially stay very far away from land.

This was something that was really key in the certification of the Boeing 777 in the 90s to make it so that a twin-engine airplane could fly essentially large transatlantic and transpacific routes away from land. Up until then, four and three-engine airplanes were the standard.

So this Pratt & Whitney engine is actually certified so the plane can fly three hours range away from land, it's that reliable and the certification processes are very, very rigorous, even throwing things like turkeys through the fan blades in the engine, so -- dead turkeys through the fan's blades of the engine, frozen things.

So, you know, it really is a very strong and stout engine, but we've seen a very big failure here and there needs to be answers.

BROWN: And we'll have to see if they end up grounding other of these Boeing 777 planes or trying to figure out, you know, what the deal was with the engine. There is a lot for investigators to sort through as they look at this debris that you see on your screen right here and investigate what happened.

Mary Schiavo, Miles O'Brien and Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

Well, it's been a week since the Senate acquitted Donald Trump for his alleged role in the deadly insurrection that jeopardized his own Vice President.

And when we come back, I'll speak to Mike Pence's former Chief of Staff, Marc Short. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:18:53]

BROWN: One month ago today, President Donald Trump left the White House for the last time. It was left to Vice President Mike Pence to attend the Biden Inauguration that Trump boycotted, just two weeks after the constitutional process was thrown into chaos by a mob of rioters, some of whom called for Pence's hanging simply for following the Constitution and his role during the election certification.

The deadly insurrection forced Pence to evacuate the Senate chamber as you see in this video right here. His team included then Chief of Staff Marc Short, who is our special guest tonight. Marc, thanks for coming on.

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO MIKE PENCE: Pamela, congratulations on the new show.

BROWN: Thanks so much. And we want to hear what you have to say, if you would, walk us through what was going on behind the scenes.

Let's start first with the days before January 6th, the push for Pence to overturn the election results and any concerns about violent protests on that day?

SHORT: No, I don't think that there were concerns about violent protests leading into it. I do think that -- look, we've shared pretty openly that the Vice President had a strong, I think, viewpoint as to what his role was that day and I think that's been supported by many constitutional scholars.

And I think unfortunately, the President was getting bad advice from people who had articulated that the Vice President would have some extraordinary powers that had never been used before in the history of our country during Electoral College meetings and certification by Congress.

[18:20:26]

SHORT: So, that what we were heading into on the 6th, but I think that the Vice President knows he swore an oath to the Constitution and was going to fulfill that. And I think --

BROWN: I just want to just dive a little bit deeper before we go any further on that. When you say the President was getting bad advice, it sounds though, like you're trying to take responsibility away from the President. Like it's the people who were advising him. It's their fault, not him. Is that right?

Or do you feel like the President, and does the Vice President feel like the President had some responsibility for what happened with the riot? And what kind -- what was going on behind the scenes specifically? Paint a picture for us about what that advice was, who it was coming from, if you would? SHORT: Well, Pamela, I think that your producer could book me as a

guest, and that could be a mistake. But ultimately, it's your show. So I'm not -- I'm not trying to absolve people responsibility.

But I think that at the end of the day, I'm just stating the fact that I do think that there was, I think, poor legal advice that the President was receiving that I think, fed him to believe that there was a different role the Vice President could play on that day.

BROWN: Okay, and so what was going on, though? Just if you would paint a picture behind the scenes. What was going on with the Vice President and with Trump and the advice that was being given?

SHORT: Well, Pamela, our office has always had a practice that we're not going to comment on private conversations between the two of them, but certainly there were others who would suggest that there was a broader role the Vice President could play and they based in, I think, two different case studies that I think fall flat.

One goes back to Thomas Jefferson, in fact, in 1801, when he was presiding as the Vice President and there was a clerical error in the votes coming in from Georgia, in which Thomas Jefferson at that time went ahead and accepted them, even though they were missing a page.

But nobody doubted -- nobody doubted that Thomas Jefferson won Georgia. And so, it's a really false parallel to use that as a way to say that Thomas Jefferson had exerted some extraordinary power.

The second is 1961 when actually Richard Nixon was in the chair, and John Kennedy won the election. And there was debate about Hawaii, and Hawaii, it was the first time that they'd actually voted in a presidential election and there were two different slates that had been presented and certified.

And Richard Nixon actually went ahead and accepted the votes that gave Kennedy the victory of that state and he twice offered to Congress to say, are there any objections? And as there were none, he then did that.

But again, those examples in no way constitute what I think some advice the President that Vice President Pence could be doing it basically disallowing votes coming in from certain states in the 2020 election.

BROWN: And it sounded like earlier, you said that the President did bear some responsibility for the riots, even though he was getting bad advice.

SHORT: No, I did not say -- no --

BROWN: Okay.

SHORT: I said he got bad advice. I don't think -- I did not say he bears responsibility for the riots. I think that the President's language was encouraging people to march to the Capitol. I think there was a lot of frustration for a lot of people, including -- including us who have concerns about the election in 2020.

And I think there's a lot of tragedies that happened on January 6th, a lot of tragedies, most particularly those who lost life and the violence that occurred and the attack on the Capitol.

But in some ways, Pamela, I think the American people were deprived the right to actually hear a debate about those improprieties that happened in the November election.

BROWN: What do you mean by that? How were they not able to take part? There were more than 60 cases this was playing out in court, it was being talked about openly. What do you mean?

SHORT: Well, I think there are a couple of examples that were most concerning to us. One is in Pennsylvania, where in essence, the courts overstepped their bounds, and usually, the determination of what happens in the State election is determined by the State Legislature and the courts unilaterally deciding they're going to extend receipt of mail-in ballots for an extra three days.

BROWN: Yes, but those ballots, Marc, I mean, we can get into the nitty-gritty, those battles weren't even counted in the final tally. The ballots that arrived after Election Day were not counted in the final tally.

A Trump appointed judge slammed down the case and said there is nothing here. There's no fraud. There's no allegation of -- and the legislature in Pennsylvania and 2019 Republican Majority passed the mail-in ballots. They were the ones -- they were totally on board with mail and ballot. So, go ahead.

SHORT: There's been onboard mail-in ballots and a judge, the judicial system unilaterally extending the number of days you can receive them.

I think that there are also concerns as far as Wisconsin, which typically you'd have applications in order to receive a mail-in ballot in which they are unilaterally distributed and no longer required applications.

[18:25:09]

SHORT: I think those are legitimate concerns that should be raised.

BROWN: But that was litigated. This was litigated with nearly -- by nearly a hundred judges including Trump judges.

SHORT: Right, and so -- yes, and there's a difference between being litigated and actually having a debate, and the Electoral Count Act allows for Congress to have that debate.

And I think that because of the events and the tragedy that happened earlier in the day, a lot of Americans were denied the opportunity to hear that debate.

BROWN: Okay, so we're going to -- stay right there, Marc, stay right there, because I want to ask you about what you think about the election results now given what you just laid out, and your reaction to the impeachment and acquittal of former President Trump.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And we are back live this Saturday night with former Vice President Mike Pence's Chief of Staff, Marc Short. Marc, thanks for sticking with us. Let's turn to the election when I said I wanted to get your reaction. First, I want to listen to what Vice President Pence told the crowd in late December. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As our election contest continues, I'll make you a promise, we're going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. We're going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. We're going to win Georgia. We're going to save America and we'll never stop fighting to Make America Great Again. You watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So Marc, the fight played out in court. The Trump-Pence team, as we mentioned before, the legal team lost more than 60 court cases. Does Pence accept the final results as a fair and free election with Biden as a legitimate president?

SHORT: As I said, I think that everyone would want to assume that you keep counting until every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is thrown out. And I think that we did have concerns about some of the events that happened in a few states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. But we accept that Joe Biden is the duly elected President of the United States and I think that the process, we just want to make sure, the vice president want to make sure the process played out to its conclusion.

And as I said, I think that conclusion happens on that day in Congress and I think it's of note that the last three times that Republicans have won the presidential election in 2000 and 2004 and 2016, Democrats rose up in Congress and objected to the certification of those states and they didn't seem to get the same condemnation from CNN and other networks at the time.

BROWN: Well, to be - and I wasn't doing what I'm doing now back then.

SHORT: I know.

BROWN: But the difference here was you had a president who was fanning the flames saying that the election was stolen, who was not conceding. Back in 2004 with Barbara Boxer on Ohio, John Kerry didn't want to do that. John Kerry had conceded. So there are different circumstances here. And the backdrop is the president telling everyone your vote doesn't

count. Your vote was stolen, which I'm hearing from you and the vice president that you don't believe that the election was stolen from Trump. So do you see how that rhetoric motivated people to storm the Capitol?

SHORT: In no way I'm looking to try to excuse us from the Capitol. I think that we've been pretty clear about that, even the vice president that night, as you recall, he asked for time from Leader McConnell to speak to them when we reconvened. And he was determined in driving us to finish the work of the American people that night even when they were concerned from some people who said we couldn't resume business for two days.

But the Vice President was clear in saying, no, we're going to get back to work and finish this tonight. And when he did, he spoke and said, every one of these people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. So there's no excuse for what transpired on that day and the people who perpetrated this crime, in no way I'm looking to try to provide any sort of alibi for that, Pam.

BROWN: So let me ask you this, because you had the rioters who were there and some have told police that they were there because the president told them to be there. The president after the riot started, tweeted that that pence was a coward. What was your reaction when you heard what the president tweeted? And did Pence feel any betrayal from him given how loyal he's been to the president?

SHORT: I don't think there was much focus on the tweet at the time to be honest. The vice president was in a secure location on the phone with Leader McCarthy, Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer trying to figure out how can we get back to work as quickly as we can. And then he was talking to General Milley and Secretary Miller to say how quickly can the National Guard get here and fulfill and make sure that this facility is safe.

So his focus was really on how quickly can we get back to finishing the work of the American people and not allowing those who had perpetrated those crimes to be victorious on that day.

BROWN: So did he feel any betrayal? Was he upset at all that Trump didn't call him?

SHORT: Look, I think the reality is that the president and vice president met. They talked several times before they departed. They departed amicably. The president told the vice president he did a great job for him. And they've spoken since.

And so look, the reality is that clearly there were differences about what the vice president's role was on January 6th, but I think that in that moment, the Vice President was focused in doing his job and staying in his post until it was complete.

BROWN: All right. Marc, good job not answering that question about how Pence really felt. But let me ask you really quickly, since he left office, obviously, well, Trump was impeached while in office but then he was acquitted.

[18:35:08]

What is the vice president's view of that acquittal? And does he agree with Mitch McConnell that minority leader that Trump had some moral responsibility? You heard those strong words from Mitch McConnell on the floor?

SHORT: Well, I look, Pam, I think that you'll have your opportunity to ask the Vice President his thoughts on that. I think there's a lot of concerns about the constitutionality of that trial. I think it creates a terrible precedent to have impeachment of former presidents and I think also it wasn't much of an impeachment, it was more of a show trial.

And the reason I say that is because last Friday night at midnight, I started to receive phone calls from unknown numbers. In checking the voicemail later, it was impeachment managers asking to compel testimony in that trial. Think about that.

They've impeached the president in the House, they basically run their entire case in the Senate, rested their case, on the night before conviction vote, they then start to reach out for witnesses. That's the only way a Democrat would run an impeachment trial. It wasn't an impeachment. It was a show trial.

BROWN: Did they reach out to Pence as well? They reach out to you, as we know, what about Pence?

SHORT: Well, I mean, the reason you know that is the same impeachment manager who was trying to call me apparently told CNN because I woke up Saturday morning, he was on CNN that Marc Short had been contacted by impeachment managers. So this wasn't an impeachment trial. It was simply a show trial.

BROWN: OK. But was Pence reached out? Did they reach out to Pence as well?

SHORT: I'm not going to comment on any additional outreach to him or anyone else on our team.

BROWN: All right. I think you said your piece though on what do you think about the impeachment. Marc Short, thanks for coming on. I hope you'll come back.

SHORT: Pam, congrats again on the show.

BROWN: Thank you so much.

And we are following some breaking news out of Colorado, plane debris falls from a united plane with engine failure. You're going to hear from an eyewitness up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:57] BROWN: Well, these are the incredible images we first saw of this

terrifying incident today, when enormous pieces of a commercial airliner fell from the sky and landed in people's yards near Denver. The pictures were taken by Kieran Cain, CNN spoke to him shortly after it happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIERAN CAIN, EYEWITNESS: It was about an hour ago, I was playing with our two kids at a local elementary school. Honestly, on the basketball court just having fun, an airplane was flying really high overhead and basically what sounded like a sonic boom, made everybody look up.

As we did, we could see there was a giant black cloud of smoke high up in the sky, immediately followed by what looked like pieces of the aircraft really just coming off and basically a shower of things that were falling out of the sky.

So immediately, you could see stuff wafting down. Some pieces much bigger than others. It was quite hard to get a sense of how big the things were because it was so up. But after a while they started to get closer and closer to the ground. You could really see there was giant - what look like and one big one in particular, that was a giant O metal ring that was just plummeting to the ground.

And unbelievably, the plane kept going on its own trajectory. But, yes, basically just all of this stuff really started showering down on the neighborhood.

HILL: And so you're exposed. So you're at the playground with your kids on a Saturday afternoon like so many families, I imagine you're watching this not only in disbelief but that there must have been a moment as well where it was there somewhere that you could seek shelter. Were you worried that this debris was actually coming toward you and your family?

CAIN: Yes, totally. I mean, it was, yes, after a moment of shock of disbelief of like what the heck was that and immediate is everybody on that plane, OK, because it sounded like something exploded. But then when you could see stuff starting to float down and we didn't know what it was. It looked like rubber. It looked like metal, who knows if there was a jet fuel in there.

Luckily enough, we took shelter under a nearby gazebo and that was at the playground that we were at and watch it come down. And as we could see, it was really starting to land about two to three blocks, just a few houses over from where we were.

HILL: And so that's when you made your way over there and I know you snapped some of these pictures, which we're showing now. Were you was the homeowner there? Were you able to speak with the folks who live in that house? I'm guessing there OK.

CAIN: Yes. Somehow unbelievably they're OK. There was one or two houses as we came over that just had giant holes in their roof with big pieces of metal just landing all around them. This person, the individual with a giant - what looks like a giant circular engine piece that had fallen down, hit the top of his RV, bounced off of his garage and then somehow landed right on his front porch.

But yes, I did get the chance to speak to him. His - in his words was, oh, my gosh, for a couple of minutes there, it was raining metal. His words. And then, yes, suddenly this giant thing just landed on his house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And coming up this Saturday night as we see the shocking images of plane engine debris on the ground, we'll talk to our experts about what could have gone wrong in the air. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:48:46]

BROWN: And we are back covering the breaking news. Right outside of Denver, huge pieces of a commercial airliner fell out of the sky over Broomfield, Colorado after a United Airlines Flight experienced an engine failure shortly after taking off from Denver International Airport this afternoon.

The plane turned around for an emergency landing and landed safely. None of the 241 passengers suffered any injuries and police say it is 'amazing' that no known injuries have been reported on the ground from the falling debris.

Back with me now is CNN Analyst and former Inspector General at the Transportation Department, Mary Schiavo and CNN Aviation Analyst Miles O'Brien.

So miles, how much different would this have been if the engine failure happened later in the flight? You have to wonder.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Yes, you do. Generally speaking, these kinds of things happen on departure and it stands to reason, if you think about it, that's when you're sort of, if you will, firewall in the engine or close to it, you're providing the maximum amount of thrust in order for the aircraft to leave the ground.

We mentioned a little while ago, April of 2018, an unusual event when the 737 at altitude, at cruise had an uncontained failure.

[18:50:03]

But generally speaking, you're stressing the system on departure. That's when the engine is doing its most work. And if there is a flaw hidden inside between all those fans and turbines that are spinning around, with such tremendous force and under such tremendous pressure and heat differentials, if there's a flaw inside there, that's when you're going to find out about it.

BROWN: Right. So Mary, you've often said that the most dangerous times on a plane are takeoff and landing. And given the context that Miles just laid out, I imagine it doesn't surprise you that it happened so soon after takeoff only around 20 miles away from the airport, 20 to 30 miles.

SCHIAVO: That's right. And Miles explained exactly right. That's why so many uncontained engine failures happen on takeoff because you have to request so much power from your engines to get them up there. And United Airlines back in 2018 had a very similar incident. Now more pictures are coming out on the internet, you can see the similarities.

In 2018 a 777-200 was departing San Francisco for Honolulu, staying in the housing and cowling came off the engine. And in that case, they found just as Miles explained it, that it had thrown some fan blades. And in that case, the NTSB just last year came out with report and said that the fault was the engine manufacturer, Pratt & Whitney, because they hadn't trained their inspectors.

So you can bet that the NTSB is looking at the data evidence in those reports right now as they're making their way to Colorado, but takeoff is a tough time for an engine.

BROWN: So what does this mean, Miles, for people who are watching right now who may have flights booked and they're looking, they're saying, oh, my gosh, well, I'm on a Boeing 777 or that the plan they're flying on has the same engine from this manufacturer that Mary just mentioned. I mean, what's going to happen in that regard?

I remember in the past, I think it was the Boeing 737s, if I'm not mistaken, were grounded after something happens. So what could happen now?

O'BRIEN: Well, it's important to remember here, we're talking about the power plant, the engine, as opposed to the airframe. And there's a reasonably big division between the two as far as the manufacturer responsibility. So there are three engine manufacturers for 777s, General Electric, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney.

And if you're really worried about it, I suppose you could look to see which airline you booked and which engine they chose to hang on the wings of their 777s when they bought them from Boeing. But I will say this, you got to remember, everybody is home safe and this situation, while scary and dramatic and certainly the pictures we've seen on YouTube get your attention.

What you just saw was a system that's pretty hardy and designed to be resilient in this case. This is why aviation is so safe, because when you design this engine, you're constantly thinking about this possibility. You know this can happen and so you armor up that engine so that when it does have this problem and they happen, it contains the shrapnel as best it can, minimizing the potential damage to the aircraft.

Of course, it can pierce the fuselage in circumstances, we've seen that. Fortunately, that didn't happen in this case. I would tell people not to cancel flights based on this possibility. It's still an astonishingly safe way to get from point A to point B. Orders of magnitude safer than your drive to the airport. BROWN: And you're right. I mean, it shows the pilots were trained.

There was redundancy and ways to prevent something worse from happening. But we keep seeing these images of these large pieces of debris, Mary, that crashed into homes and vehicles. Tell us about what we're seeing right here. How heavy were these pieces of metal? What clues did they tell you?

SCHIAVO: Well, it's a large amount of metal. That big metal ring that we keep seeing, that is large enough for somebody to stand inside and that's probably one-twentieth of the metal that came off of this engine. And of course falling metal from 13,000, 15,000 feet, I mean, it's coming down at a pretty rapid velocity and could do a lot of damage.

And in accidents in the past, not this one, but in accidents in the past, obviously, there have been injuries and casualties on the ground when things have fallen off of airplanes or the airplane itself has fallen. So it could have been far worse. But while these pieces comparative to other parts on the aircraft, one wouldn't say they're heavy, they're not as heavy as a landing gear, but they are largely metal. Some parts are composite materials.

But every piece is going to be important because what the NTSB, based on the prior, the one that happened in 2018, and by the way in 2019, the FAA order an inspection of this kind of engine.

[18:55:02]

Every engine in the fleet was supposed to have been inspected. The FAA might order that again, although I don't think they will ground them. It won't be an emergency order. But every piece is going to be important and they could be looking for a fan blade smaller than a finger or small part might hold a clue.

BROWN: You never know. All right. Mary, Miles, thank you so much. And be sure to stay with us for the latest breaking news out of Colorado.

Ahead tonight as well, President Joe Biden just visited Bob Dole following his cancer diagnosis. We're going to have a live report from the White House. Stay with us.

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