HOUSTON — Passengers were evacuated from a United Airlines plane that veered off the runway at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston Friday morning.
United said it happened when the flight from Memphis landed and went from the runway into the grass as it was heading to the gate.
"2477, I see you in the grass, we're rolling, ah trucks in route," the tower is heard saying on audio obtained by KHOU 11 News. "We've got an aircraft off the runway ..."
No injuries were reported but passengers said it was scary.
"There was a lot of yelling because it was a big bang, and then everyone was sitting sideways," John Lee of Houston said. "People were really starting to raise the anxiety and get scared."
"Well, there was a huge pop, plane tilted over and everybody kind of gasped. The lady across the way screamed," Mike Allard from New Caney, Texas told us.
"We landed fine, and then there was a loud boom. So I thought we hit another plane," Candace Davis said. "And then we just started going into the grass. And the plane just started leaning."
Darrin Foster said he flew to Houston for his cousin's wedding and to celebrate his birthday but his trip got off to a bad start.
"When we landed it was kind of rough, like we came in too fast or something," Foster said. "I was kind of nervous, scared. I didn’t know what was going on and then that’s when they said fuel was leaking."
Passengers were evacuated from the plane and bussed to the terminal.
According to the airline, there were a total of 160 passengers and a six-person crew.
The FAA was notified and the National Transportation Safety Board said they were sending a team to investigate.
The plane was still in the grass early Friday evening but workers were hanging a tarp across the fence that blocked the view.
Flights in and out of Bush were not impacted, according to United.
Third United incident this week
Friday's incident is the third we've reported this week involving a United flight.
On Thursday, we learned that a tire fell from a United flight that took off in San Francisco. The plane landed safely at LAX.
On Monday, flames could be seen coming from an engine of a flight that took off from Houston and the pilot was forced to return to the airport. United later said the fire was caused by bubble wrap on the airfield being sucked into the engine.
No injuries were reported in either incident, according to United.
United issued the following statement about the three incidents Friday evening.
"We take every safety event seriously and will investigate each of the incidents that occurred this week to understand what happened and learn from them. Much of this work is conducted together with Boeing, the FAA, and the NTSB as well as with the manufacturers of individual components. While this work is ongoing, each of these events is distinct and unrelated to one another. Safety is our top priority, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to keep our customers and employees safe."