A chilling audio recording captured the moment a United Airlines pilot issued a distress call after one of the plane’s engines failed just moments into a transatlantic flight.
“Failure, engine failure, left engine,” the pilots of United Flight 108 reported to air traffic control after taking off from Washington Dulles International Airport on July 25.
“Declaring an emergency. Mayday, mayday, mayday,” the pilot added.
Flight 108 had departed from the D.C.-area airport shortly before 6 p.m. that Friday, bound for an almost eight-hour journey to Munich, Germany.
But just minutes after takeoff, while climbing to around 10,000 feet, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner suffered an engine failure, according to audio obtained by the flight tracker You Can See ATC.
Air traffic controllers immediately instructed the crew to begin turning northeast to return to Dulles.
However, with fuel tanks fully loaded for the long-haul flight, the pilots realized the aircraft was too heavy to land safely. They requested time and space to circle in the air and dump excess fuel.
Roughly 30 minutes later, the plane began its descent and landed without incident.
All 219 passengers and 11 crew members disembarked safely.
A spokesperson for United Airlines told PEOPLE that the aircraft experienced a “mechanical issue,” though no further details were provided.
