Footage taken by terrified passengers has captured the moment they realised fire was spewing from the wings of their airplane.
The Philippine Airlines flight bound for Manila, took off from Los Angeles International Airport just after 11am on Thursday, but had to turn back after barely an hour.
With flames streaking from the wings, it had to make an emergency landing back at LAX .
Footage has now been unearthed which reveals the fearful atmosphere on board the flight, with panicked voices clearly audible.
One passenger said in nervous tones: "Whoa, Whoa. Come on. Oh, come on."
Another holidaymaker, also filming the unfolding catastrophe, said: "I've never seen that before. That doesn't sound good. Doesn't look good."
In a separate video, a child's voice can be heard asking whether the pilots would be making a crash landing, and an adult voice replies "I hope not".
Footage taken on the ground show plumes of thick, black smoke billowing from the Boeing 777's right engine.
Passengers later reported hearing loud bangs moments before the flames emerged.
Officials confirmed the plane landed safely without further incident, with none of the 347 passengers or 18 crew members reporting injuries.
Geri Lemata, who posted footage from inside the plane to Facebook , told CNN Philippines : "The plane jolted with every loud bang.
"Next thing we knew, a [flight attendant] from behind ran to the front to talk to the purser and that's when I definitely knew something was wrong.
"It stopped shortly after and the pilots right away announced that we had engine problems but that everything was under control and then they landed the plane safely."
Cielo Villaluna, a spokesperson for Philippine Airlines, said the plane had been forced to return to LA by an unidentified "technical problem", and that it would not be flying for at least three days.
She said the airline would be investigating the cause of the flames, but that they were being treated as an isolated incident.
She said: "We will look at the history and the maintenance aspect with regards to the aircraft.
"We take this as an isolated incident because this has not happened [before].
"It cannot be denied that [passengers] were alarmed by what they saw, but the pilot safely landed the aircraft.
"In fact, based on the report of the captain, the passengers burst into applause upon landing."
She also said that the airline would assist all affected passengers with hotel bookings and replacement flights.
