Airbus loses part of engine casing over Germany

Dusseldorf - A Greek-bound German holiday jet lost part of its engine casing in midair on Thursday, forcing the pilot to make an unscheduled landing, aviation officials said.

The metal parts fell off the LTU Airbus A330 shortly after it left Dusseldorf for Thessalonika with 114 passengers on board.

Two 1-metre-by-1 metre chunks of the metal casing were found in a field near the town of Dormagen.

'We can count ourselves lucky that nobody on the ground was injured,' said a police spokesman.

Local residents alerted police, but the pilot had noticed the parts falling off and returned to Dusseldorf where he landed the plane safely, an airline spokesman said.

The spokesman said their was no danger to the aircraft at any time. An investigation was under way to determine what caused the incident.

The passengers were able to resume their journey on another aircraft five hours later.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/euro ... er_Germany

How did the pilot notice the parts flying off? Was he sitting in coach? :)