One of many 4 engines on the Airbus A380 flight AF66 failed west of Greenland on Saturday.
No-one was injured within the incident, however passengers remained on board hours after the touchdown at 15:42 GMT.
The aircraft was carrying 496 passengers and 24 crew on the time, an Air France spokesperson informed AFP information company.
David Rehmar, a former plane mechanic who was a passenger on the flight, informed the BBC that based mostly on his observations, the incident was a fan failure.
He mentioned there was a sudden motion adopted by a loud noise, which prompted panic among the many passengers.
“You heard a loud ‘increase’, and it was the vibration alone that made me suppose the engine had failed,” he mentioned.
Mr Rehmar mentioned that for a number of moments, he thought “we have been going to go down.”
His fear that the plane’s wing might have been compromised disappeared when the flight stabilised inside 30 seconds. And he added that the pilots had rapidly shut down the affected engine.
The aircraft flew for about an hour on three engines earlier than it reached Goose Bay Airport, in Labrador in jap Canada.
Images taken by passengers confirmed the cowling, or engine protecting, fully destroyed, and a few beauty harm to the wing’s floor.
Mr Rehmar mentioned hen strike was not a probable explanation for the incident at such a excessive altitude, and his expertise led him to consider the stage-one fan – the outside fan blades on the entrance of the engine – had by some means failed. However the reason for any such failure is just not but clear.
Passengers have been stranded on the aircraft in Canada for numerous hours, because the airport is just not outfitted to deal with an Airbus A380.
He mentioned passengers had been supplied with meals and that the captain had come out to talk to passengers. Some posed with him in photos posted on social media.
Two 777s have been dispatched from Montreal to select them up and switch them to Los Angeles.
In an announcement, Air France merely confirmed “severe harm” to at least one engine and mentioned its crew had “dealt with this severe incident completely”.