‘Then craziness ensued’
Broomfield couple recounts plane debris falling
Saturday started out like any other day for Mar yann and Kirby Klements.
The couple was sitting in their living room reading when they heard what sounded like a gunshot followed by a horrible crash.
“Then this thing just falls over in our yard,” Mar yann said. “I said, ‘What the hell was that?’ My mind didn’t go to a plane … I thought it was par t of a hot tub. That was my first thought.”
Broomfield police began receiving calls at 1:08 p.m. Saturday from residents who said they thought a plane was falling from the sky. Debris landed mainly in Commons Park and the Red Leaf and Nor thmoor neighborhoods, police previously said.
“It looks like it exploded, there are parts everywhere,” a Broomfield dispatcher said in scanner traffic audio released by police. “There are literally par ts falling all over the city.”
Around the same time, Kirby went outside to investigate.
“He came back in and said, ‘You are not going to believe what this is,'” Mar yann recalled. “I said, ‘What is it?’ He goes, ‘It’s the front part of a jet engine.
Then craziness ensued.” The more than 250pound engine par t fell on Kirby’s navy blue Dodge Ram pickup parked in their driveway, likely destroying it. Mar yann said she believes guardian angels were looking out for them — if the engine par t fell 10 feet to the east, it would have crashed into the Klements’ living room, where they were reading at the time.
Across Commons Park, hunks of plane could be seen strewn across the soccer field. Behind yellow police tape, spectators took pictures and shared accounts of what they saw that afternoon.
Broomfield police and residents alike agree the fact that no one was injured by falling debris is unbelievable.
“It’s actually remarkable, given the amount of people that are at this park this time of day,” Broomfield Public Information Officer Rachel Welte said Saturday. “We are absolutely fortunate that no one was injured.”
The United Airlines Boeing 777 was headed to Honolulu, but turned back to Denver International Airport for an emergency landing. The plane’s 231 passengers were safely evacuated.
The Klements’ truck was one of many property damage reports filed Saturday. The truck, they said, pulled their camper and allowed them to travel safely to see their grandchildren in Grand Junction through the coronavirus pandemic.
At Broomfield Commons Park on Saturday afternoon, park-goers heard a loud pop before looking up to see the airplane spewing black smoke.
Jason Griffis, of Broomfield, said it looked like paper from a notebook was falling from the sky. Then, the pieces star ted landing on the soccer field.
“We saw speckles of debris, or what we thought were speckles,” Griffis told the Daily Camera. “It took a long time for it to get any range. It looked like someone dumped a notebook and papers. Ever ything that was falling was fluttering down. As it got closer, we started to realize just how big the pieces were.”
The Klements watched debris rain down from their house located one block west of Sheridan Boulevard.
“It rained down for minutes. We were looking to see where the plane crashed. We didn’t have a clue,” Kirby said. “It was a good 20 or 30 minutes before we found out the plane was headed back to DIA. That made a big dif ference in the mood.”
The 777’s engine failure quickly became national news. Kirby said the TV network Univision was filming outside their house at 10 p.m. Monday evening, and Mar yann said her son sent a clip of the stor y making headlines on a French TV station. Mar yann said she never expected to make international news — at least not for that.
“Whoever thinks par t of an airplane engine is going to fall on your house?” she said.
United Airlines grounded 24 of its Boeing 777s on Sunday after the engine failure, The Denver Post reported.
United Airlines is handling the damage claims. To file a damage claim, go to united.com/en/us/ customercare.
The Broomfield Police Depar tment in a tweet Sunday said their communications center became “inundated with calls” of reported debris and asked residents to only contact them if a large piece of the plane is found. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.