Passengers aboard Frontier Airlines flight 260 experienced a major scare on Friday morning.
The flight was headed to Tampa from Las Vegas when the engine cover, or the cowling, separated from the aircraft shortly after the 7 a.m. take-off.
The pilots followed procedure and returned to McCarran International Airport.
Despite the cowling having come off the engine, the plane operated normally and pilots were able to land safely without any injuries to the 166 passengers.
Passenger Jazmin Pedraza, told ABC News how travelers reacted to the emergency.
"As the plane started to accelerate, to take off, there were engine pieces flying and the engine had caught a slight fire. … One man started yelling and then everyone was yelling for assistance and pressing the buttons for [the crew] to stop the plane but we had already started taking off," she said.
"Once we got the attention of the flight attendants, she came and looked out of our windows to see what was going on and then went to call the pilot and got the passengers under control. Everyone started making phone calls to their loved ones and crying and panicking then they announced we will be doing an emergency landing and we stayed in the air for about 10 to 15 minutes until we were able to safely land the plane."
Passengers were given refunds and put on other flights.
Frontier airlines said in a statement: "Safety is our top priority at Frontier Airlines and we would like to acknowledge the professionalism of our pilots and flight attendants. We are working to get our passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible."
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