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Air France Flight Makes Emergency Landing in Newfoundland After Blown Engine

One passenger tweeted, "Just glad to be on the ground."

An Air France flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Newfoundland and Labrador after it appears one of its engines blew out.

About four or five hours into flight AF66 from Paris to Los Angeles, there was a loud pop and the plane dropped, passenger Sarah Eamigh told HuffPost Canada in an interview.

The pilot announced that the Airbus A380 had "lost" one of its engines and would be attempting to land in Canada, said Pamela Adams, a travel writer and therapist from southern California.

"We heard this tremendous bang. It was like the plane hit a Jeep at 35,000 feet,'' Adams told The Canadian Press. "It was a whiplash moment. We grabbed onto something and then we sat down, and the plane righted itself fairly soon."

The plane shook for about 10 minutes, according to Eamigh, and people were anxiously watching the flashing exit signs. She and her friend started texting their kids.

The diverted airliner landed safely at the airport in Goose Bay, N.L. about 90 minutes after impact, said Adams. It was carrying 497 passengers and 24 crew at the time, reported AFP.

"Thank goodness, we had a very good landing," Eamigh said. "A lot of credit to the crew for keeping everyone calm and the captain for keeping us updated."

Air France described "serious damage'' to one of the plane's four engines. Photos and video shared by passengers on social media shows a damaged engine, which appears to have lost its cowling.

"The regularly trained pilots and cabin crew handled this serious incident perfectly,'' the airline said in a statement. "The passengers are currently being assisted by teams dispatched to the location."

Passenger Daniel McNeely tweeted out a picture saying, "... just glad to be on the ground."

Crews handed out meals as passengers waited on tarmac the for hours, said Adams.

With files from Adina Bresge of Canadian Press

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