The cause of the incident is not known yet.
A routine flight from Newark airport in the United States turned scary when sparks flew from one of the wings moments after take-off. The video of the incident is widely circulating on social media. It also shows burning debris falling from the plane. According to Aero Explorer, it was a United Airlines flight, which was on its way from Newark to Sao Paulo in Brazil. The video has shocked social media users who blame the poor upkeep of the ageing fleet of the airline.
Aero Explorer further said that the aircraft was a Boeing 777-200ER. It returned to Newark 1.5 hours after the take-off, the outlet further said citing data from FlightRadar24.
Twitter users were angry after looking at the footage.
"All because someone didn't put their phone on airplane mode," tweeted one user. "Terrible but thanks the pilot they landed safely," said another.
The cause of the incident is not known yet, but there are concerns about old planes. To allay those fears, United has ordered dozens of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which it will receive in 2023.
"With a number of our aircraft nearing the end of their lifecycle and the growth opportunities that we know will exist in the COVID-19 recovery period, this agreement will help us to grow as demand returns," Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters after the agreement was signed last year.
In addition to the new Boeing order, United had also said that it moved up delivery of 40 previously ordered MAX aircraft to 2022 and 5 to 2023, meaning it will have 94 new aircraft in its fleet.