{"id":139632,"date":"2026-02-20T03:49:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T03:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139632\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T03:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T03:49:20","slug":"jetblue-flight-returns-to-newark-airport-due-to-engine-failure-full-ground-stop-issued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/139632\/","title":{"rendered":"JetBlue flight returns to Newark Airport due to engine failure; full ground stop issued"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — Flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were temporarily suspended after engine failure forced a JetBlue flight to return to the airport and evacuate passengers via slides on Wednesday, according to officials.<\/p>\n

JetBlue Flight 543 took off from Newark heading to West Palm Beach around 5:45 p.m., and then immediately returned to the airport due to engine failure, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in a statement.<\/p>\n

Passengers on the flight told Eyewitness News they heard a loud bang and then saw a flash by the wing. They thought maybe the plane was struck by lightning.<\/p>\n

It was calm at first, but by the time they had to evacuate, they say it was pure panic.<\/p>\n

“Maybe a minute later the pilot came OK and gave an announcement saying, ‘I heard a pop in the engine. We’re going to turn around, we’re going back to Newark. We’ll be landing in about 10 minutes,'” said passenger Alexandra Svokos.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After the plane landed and exited the runway, the crew of the Airbus A320 reported smoke in the cockpit and evacuated the passengers via slides, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.<\/p>\n

Video shows smoke from the cockpit filling the plane.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“There’s fire trucks and emergency crews all around the plane and eventually somebody came on the announcement system and said something to the effect of seatbelts off get off the plane, at which point everybody stampeded towards the exit. It was not the prettiest side of humanity,” Svokos said.<\/p>\n

She said passengers weren’t informed that they would be getting off on a slide.<\/p>\n

“There was just running to the exit and seeing a slide and there were flight attendants telling everybody ‘go get out, get out, get down the slide, get down the slide,'” Svokos said.<\/p>\n

Officials say the plane landed safely with no injuries reported.<\/p>\n

Flight operations had been temporarily suspended for about an hour while the aircraft was removed from the taxiway.<\/p>\n

The airport reopened and flight operations resumed around 7 p.m., according to the FAA and the Port Authority.<\/p>\n

Newark Airport advised travelers to check with their airline for up-to-date information.<\/p>\n

“Safety is JetBlue’s top priority,” the airline said in a statement. “We are focused on supporting our customers and crewmembers and will work closely with the appropriate federal authorities to investigate what occurred.”<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — Flights at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey were temporarily suspended after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[58978,9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-139632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-58978","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}