Klements said the damage was very scary.

\"If somebody would have been in there that had been seriously injured or killed,\" he added. \"I mean ... the whole top of the truck is in the side of the cabin of the truck.\"

Klements said he and his wife heard about the flight making a safe landing from the news and that as of this afternoon, the debris was still on his property.

\"So that was very fortunate that nobody on the ground got hurt from the several large pieces that hit around the neighborhood,\" he said. \"And thank goodness that nobody in the plane was injured or anything either.\"

Debris remains scattered throughout the town as the FAA and NTSB survey the damage and investigate the incident.

\"PHOTO:
Chet Strange/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: The NTSB arrives on scene after debris from a United Airlines airplane's engine fell in the neighborhood of Broomfield, Colorado, Feb. 20, 2021.
>

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson issued an emergency airworthiness directive on Sunday that would require immediate or stepped-up inspections of Boeing 777 jets powered by certain Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines.

\"This will likely mean that some airplanes will be removed from service,\" Dickson said in a statement.

Pratt & Whitney said it has \"dispatched a team to work with investigators.\"

\"Pratt & Whitney is actively coordinating with operators and regulators to support the revised inspection interval of the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines that power Boeing 777 aircraft,\" the company said in a statement Sunday. \"Pratt & Whitney will continue to work to ensure the safe operation of the fleet.\"

Following Saturday's incident, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism instructed Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, both of which operate aircraft equipped with Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines, to ground all Boeing 777 planes in their fleet. The ministry referred to a \"serious incident\" that occurred on a Japan Airlines flight on Dec. 4, where the same type of engine was damaged as in the United Airlines incident.

Boeing said it \"supports the decision\" by Japanese and U.S. regulators to ground its 777 jets equipped with those engines.

\"While the NTSB investigation is ongoing, we recommended suspending operations of the 69 in-service and 59 in-storage 777s powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines until the FAA identifies the appropriate inspection protocol,\" the company said in a statement Sunday. \"Boeing supports the decision yesterday by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, and the FAA’s action today to suspend operations of 777 aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines. We are working with these regulators as they take actions while these planes are on the ground and further inspections are conducted by Pratt & Whitney.\"

Shortly after the FAA issued its directive, United Airlines announced it would temporarily remove 24 Boeing 777 planes equipped with those engines from its schedule.

\"Since yesterday, we’ve been in touch with regulators at the NTSB and FAA and will continue to work closely with them to determine any additional steps that are needed to ensure these aircraft meet our rigorous safety standards and can return to service,\" the airline said in a statement. \"As we swap out aircraft, we expect only a small number of customers to be inconvenienced.\"

A person familiar with the situation told ABC News that this particular engine has a unique design. The blade itself is hollow titanium and the source compared it to a chocolate Easter bunny.

Tom Haueter, an ABC News consultant and the former NTSB Director of the Office of Aviation Safety, called the engine fan blades \"critical\" to the investigation.

\"What the NTSB wants to look at is, is there any evidence of a preexisting issue with that engine, with that fan blade,\" Haueter told ABC News.

ABC News' Alexandra Faul, Joshua Hoyos, Roger K. Lee and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

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