United Airlines passengers describe horrifying moments when flight's engine started falling off [Video]

A United Airlines plane flying over the Pacific Ocean had to make an emergency landing after passengers noticed that parts of flight 1175's engine were falling off. The plane was flying from San Francisco and had to make an emergency landing at Honolulu airport on Tuesday.

Passengers took to social media to share photos and videos of the engine's outer shell that had fallen off, and described the horrifying moments.

"Scariest flight of my life," passenger Maria Falaschi‏ tweeted along with a photo of the engine malfunction.

Another passenger, Erik Haddad, shared the video of the engine and tweeted: "That looks bad, plane and simple."

"I don't see anything about this in the manual," he tweeted.

Passenger Haley Ebert posted a video on Twitter that showed the plane shaking as it descended to land. "#ua1175 so glad we are all safe after our emergency landing," she tweeted.

Passenger Jeff Carter shared a video on Instagram and captioned it: "What a #united 777 full of people calmly preparing themselves for death might look like #ua1175 #shirokuma #thebearisstillalive."

The airlines in a statement said that the pilots followed all necessary protocol and made an emergency landing.

"The plane's pilots called for an emergency landing because of a loss of the engine cowling (the covering of the engine)," the airlines said in a statement.

"Our pilots followed all necessary protocols to safely land the aircraft. The aircraft taxied to the gate and passengers deplaned normally."

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson said that the pilots felt a vibration in the right engine and even the Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting personnel was on standby for precaution, Fox 2 KTVU reported.

"I don't see anything about this in the manual," he tweeted.          

Passenger Haley Ebert posted a video on Twitter that showed the plane shaking as it descended to land. "#ua1175 so glad we are all safe after our emergency landing," she tweeted.

Passenger Jeff Carter shared a video on Instagram and captioned it: "What a #united 777 full of people calmly preparing themselves for death might look like #ua1175 #shirokuma #thebearisstillalive."